Behold the Mimic
by nanashiX
Summary: Sharingan, one of the most renowned doujutsu of the ninja world. In Naruto's world its copying abilities may be pushed to the side thanks to one blonde ninja. In a ninja world just as technological as ours, Naruto will become a legend. Beta now Tigee86!
1. Chapter 1: Henge to a new level

(Nanashi here, back and with an edited chapter)

Edited 6/18/11

Chapter 1: Henge to a new level.

Summary: In the ninja world the Sharingan is said to be one of the greatest doujutsus because of its amazing copying abilities. In the Naruto world, TV shows and manga that we see now are shown to him and with it he has gotten ideas on how to be a better ninja. Behold the birth of the first mimic ninja! He will show those Sharingan wielders that he will use his own power. Many anime/manga xovers. Starts from when Naruto shows Konahamaru the Orioke no jutsu.

Disclaimer: Yo Nanashi here don't own any of the animes that are being exploited BWHAHAHA!

"Maa well looks like I have a rival for Hokage?" said a blonde haired ninja as he walked towards his house. Naruto had just gotten finished with, in his mind, owning that pervert with the sunglasses. As he thought about how he beat him, Naruto couldn't help but smile. "Hah see I knew all grown-ups were perverts. That showed them ha-ha!" As Naruto reached his apartment he was struck by a thought about the attack that he had been using for some years now. 'Orioke no jutsu (Sexy jutus)...hmmm I know I based it off the Henge but I always thought that Henge was an illusion. I know I stayed up for that class cause they were talking about jutsu.'

Naruto shrugged off the thought and walked into his apartment to get ready to watch one of his favorite shows. As he heated up some water on the stove he turned on his small TV. While he waited for his hot water for his precious ramen he watched the opening for the show One Piece. The water on the kettle whistled and he got his ramen ready as he watched his favorite character, Luffy, preform one of his standard moves, the Gomu gomu no pistoru (Gum gum Pistol). Naruto watched as Luffy swung his right arm back far away from his body then shoot it forward into one of his enemies. Naruto laughed and ate while he watched the rest of his show, unknowingly while the gears in his head slowly spun, an idea formulating.

XxX

With his dinner done and show over he went to one of his favorite training spots to get ready for his big test tomorrow still fuming over the fact that he wasn't a true genin. "Fucking Kakashi-sensei saying that we aren't genin I'll show him what the next Hokage can do!" As he said this he pounded against the training log relentlessly with his fist. This went on until Naruto started to incorporate kicks into the frenzy against the training log. With his punches and kicks going, he started to tire out on beating on a target that did nothing back. So making a hand seal he called out "Kage bunshin no jutsu (Shadow Clone Jutsu)". With that, the training ground was filled with two dozen Narutos.

"Yosh! Ready guys!" Naruto called out to...well himself. There was a cry of HAI from amongst the clones and then the battle started. With a cry Naruto ran at one of his clones punching it in the face, launching that clone at another making those both disappear in a cloud of smoke. Pulling out a kunai from the pouch on his right thigh he threw it at one clone who took that to the forehead and also disappeared. While the real Naruto's attention was on the clone he just killed, two more came from above and prepared to pounce on him. Naruto sensed it and with a quick back-hand spring he dodged and flew into the air while pulling out a handful of shuriken and throwing them at the two clones. The shuriken struck the clones causing them to disperse. As Naruto landed on the ground he received a kick to the stomach causing him to fly into a punch to the face from another clone.

"Shit... that hurt." moaned Naruto as he got up from the ground. He growled and pulled a kunai out in each hand, sliding them into a reverse grip and ran into the small crowd. As the fight continued there were only two clones and the original left. Naruto grinned and ran at the two clones. What happened next started a chain of events that would lead to the evolution of Naruto and his world. The two clones jumped into the air with one having his hands placed into the ram sign. "Henge (Transform)!" the clone to the right called transforming into a large fuuma shuriken. The remaining clone grabbed the large shuriken that looked a lot like the one the traitor Mizuki used and threw the shuriken at Naruto.

Now Naruto just this evening was having thoughts about the Henge and he kept having thoughts about how it was supposed to be an illusion technique like a genjutsu. However his mind was giving him the warning bells that told him to duck. Ducking quickly Naruto heard a thunk and looked to see the shuriken lodged deep into the tree behind him. Gaping in surprise Naruto called the clone over to him.

"Hey how'd you do that?" Naruto asked.

"Neh? What do you mean boss we just transformed into something else?" replied the clone.

"Well yeah but Henge isn't supposed to completely change your whole being...right?" The clone just shrugged and dispelled itself sensing that the fight was over. Naruto however sat under the tree that the shuriken hit, the object disappearing long ago, and thought about the possibilities of this new phenomenon, not that he knew what that was. With the ability to change something into a totally new thing he could figure out some new attacks. And with that in mind Naruto stood in the middle of the field trying to transform his right arm into something that resembled one of his favorite characters, Luffy. Naruto had tried to transform his whole body into what he believed to be rubber, but that failed and the backlash of trying to transform into something so different from his body caused him to immediately vomit from the backlash of the jutsu. Hours of the night passed before he recovered, and with that in mind he only tried to transform his right arm on his next attempt. Thinking of the properties of rubber and the way that Luffy's arm looked like he gathered his chakra and made the handsign calling out "Henge!" A small poof of smoke surrounded his right arm showing that the long sleeve from his orange jumpsuit had disappeared leaving only his bare arm visible. It seemed that his jump suit's right side had become like a vest resembling Luffy's.

"Ok...now let's see. I think I got the structure right... and I thought about how Luffy's body is made of rubber." Naruto said between breathes. "Now rubber is real stretchy and can bend and stretch back into its regular shape. That's how he is able to use his moves, well from the episodes that I've seen so far." Naruto rolled his shoulder testing out the balance and thought about what to do next. He could feel that his right arm was different from his left, even when he rolled up his left sleeve and could see that they looked the same. After a couple minutes of thinking about what to do Naruto rolled his neck and looked at the training post. Grasping his right shoulder he clenched his fist and with a deep breath he started his experiment.

"Gomu gomu no..." Naruto swung his right arm back stretching it as far as he could and apparently from what he could see and feel that was pretty far. After stretching it back he swung his fist forward, lashing out the clenched fist backed up with the tension and momentum that was gained from the arm stretching that far back. "PISTORU!" With that great shout Naruto's fist hit the post while he was some meters away. With that attack Naruto's goal seemed even closer to him. On this day he gained his first long range attack and opened the doors to amazing possibilities to himself.

"I'M GOING TO BE THE BEST HOKAGE EVER!" Naruto screamed into the sky while his right arm turned back to normal.

After that shout Naruto eagerly continued to practice his new technique.

Xxxx

_Beta's Note:_

_A weary, heavy-set man stumbles into the open from behind a curtain. "Help me…help me…there is so much…editing…"_

_*Nanashi pops out and clubs the big guy over the head with a Log. He then begins dragging the insensate Beta/editor back to the curtain*_

_Nanashi: Pay no attention to the Fat Man behind the curtain! He has work to do, don't you Tigee86? Lots and lots of work!_


	2. Test with a twist: UNLEASH GOMU

Chapter 2: Test with a twist. UNLEASH GOMU!

(Nanashi here back with a chapter edit.)

Edited 6/18/11

Summary: In the ninja world the Sharingan is said to be one of the greatest doujutsus because of its amazing copying abilities. In the Naruto world tv shows that we watch now are shown to him and he has gotten ideas on how to be a better ninja. Behold the birth of the first mimic ninja! He will show those Sharingan wielders that he will use his own power. Many anime xovers. Starts from when Naruto shows Konahamaru the Orioke no jutsu.

**AN: Thank you note to all people who had just reviewed on my new fic. Note that the M rating is for cursing and blood also I labeled this fic as Adv/Rom but it will have a high amount of humor. Who knows I may change the label. Also I'm making chapters longer because first was just a trial chap.**

Disclaimer: You know the drill me no own!

I'm going to try this thing called covers. I've seen it done a couple times so here's my take on them.

_Cover: Naruto holding his right fist out towards the front while his left hand holds a strawhat. Behind him shows Sasuke on his right, hands in the tiger seal, Sakura on the left holding a kunai, and Kakashi in the middle eye smiling with his book._

* * *

We find our lovable hero sleeping, having wonderful dreams of becoming the Hokage mixed in with the odd number of 7:30. He doesn't seem to know why that number is important though...that is until his shining azure eyes open to the sun and see that it is 7:20. His brain then decides to start up and remind him that he has a meeting his team for their test in TEN MINUTES! "AHHHH! FUCKIN SHIT, I'M LATE!" Naruto screamed out, causing the birds in a nearby tree to fly away in fright. Naruto scrambled to get ready after a quick shower and changing into his clothes he grabbed a piece of toast, completely forgetting what Kakashi said about not eating. With a quick turn of the lock on his apartment door, Uzumaki Naruto was off to meet his team in training ground 7.

* * *

Currently in training ground 7 we can find two young people trying not to fall asleep. One was a young girl with bubble gum pink hair. She wore a red battle dress with black tights under. Her kunai pouch was strapped to her right thigh with her hitai-ate used as a hairband to hold her hair, and her emerald eyes showed a high amount of anger. This girl is Haruno Sakura. Across from her is a young boy with black hair that is spiked oddly in the back but let loose in the front. He had a blue shirt on with white shorts, and his kunai pouch was strapped to the same thigh as Sakura. His hitai-ate was used as headband to cover his forehead. His onyx eyes showed seriousness with a touch of smugness...and a bit of weariness although he'd never admit it. This boy's name is Uchiha Sasuke. They both snapped out of their thoughts when an orange blur dropped from the sky and skidded to a halt in front of them both. His bright blonde hair was spiked in all directions with his hitai-ate covering his forehead. His clear azure eyes were closed giving an impression of a fox while he scratched the back of his head in embarrassment, this apparently being a reflex for him. He wore a bright orange jumpsuit with a splash of navy blue. His kunai pouch was also strapped to his right thigh.

Opening his eyes Naruto was rewarded with two pairs of angry eyes. Chuckling nervously he slowly walked to one of the three training logs that were lined up in a row. He sat down, leaning against the middle one. Naruto was exhausted. He had spent hours on end last night trying to master his new move and trump card, and with enough practice he could reliably transform one of his arms into the rubber counterpart of one of his favorite TV characters. Though it WAS difficult and he couldn't keep his arm like that for too long right now. As Naruto rested against the log Sakura was getting angrier and angrier. Not only did Naruto almost come late but it was now 8:00 and their sensei wasn't here! 'Oooo I am going to kill that man!' Sakura thought as a dark cloud formed above her. "**Shanaro! How dare that bastard make us wait! And making our precious Sasuke-kun wait!**" Inner Sakura voiced in her opinion. At the mention of Sasuke, Sakura looked over and blushed, daydreaming about the Uchiha boy. As she drifted off in her own thoughts, Sasuke was closing his eyes thinking about how he could become stronger.

'I must get stronger to defeat him! And if my sensei isn't fucking here how can I get STRONGER!' Sasuke wouldn't say this out loud but due to his annoyance his anger took over his mind.

* * *

It was now 9:30, two hours after Kakashi had told squad 7 to meet. As Naruto plotted on how to prank him and Sakura had day dreams about beating the hell out of him and Sasuke started to clench his fist, Hatake Kakashi decided to poof into the training ground. Hatake Kakashi was dressed in the usual jounin garb but had his hitai-ate covering his left eye. His silver hair was gravity defying and his lower half of his face was covered by a face mask. His right eye was curved in a "u" signifying that he was smiling and was classified as his "eye smile".

"Hello my cute little students, how are you this morning?" Kakashi said to the three young genin. He then noticed the dark air around the three.

"YOU'RE LATE!" yelled out Naruto and Sakura while Sasuke's eye twitched. Kakashi waved his hands in front of him trying to calm them down while smiling in his head. With the genin calmed down Kakashi had them gather around him to explain the test.

"Now kids I told you before that we have a test that would determine your future right?" Kakashi asked the three young teens. He received a group of nods and with that he pulled out two shiny, silver bells. "Now your test is to get these bells from me and I warn you if you don't come at me with the intent to kill," he stated, "you will fail!" Kakashi's words hit them like a brick. The intent to kill? How could he ask them to do that!

Naruto closed his eyes and thought long and hard about what was just said. 'Can I really fight with that kind of intent?' Naruto thought. Looking up Naruto remembered what he went through to get the headband he was wearing. With determined eyes he pulled out his kunai and got ready to attack, but before he could do anything his arm was seized and held behind him.

"Ah ah, I didn't say go yet did I but I'm glad you know what to do, ne?" Kakashi said from behind Naruto. All three genin's eyes widened in awe.

'He is strong! He must have been faking when he got hit by that eraser!' Sasuke thought.

'F-fast!' Sakura thought. While Naruto was being held down, he could already feel what was going to happen during this test.

"Heh let's go then!" Naruto yelled.

"Oh well then, shall we begin?" Kakashi said letting go of Naruto. And with that there were only two puffs of dust as two genin ran into the foliage for cover...the reason for that is a certain blonde haired genin was still standing in front of his silver haired sensei with a triumphant smirk.

"Come on sensei just you and me!" yelled out Naruto.

"You're a little off aren't you?" Kakashi said scratching his head.

"The only thing off is your hair! I'm gonna kick your ass!" Naruto exclaimed as he ran at Kakashi. Kakashi scratched his head while his potential student ran at him but shrugged it off as he reached into his back hip pouch.

"Ok then. Lesson one: taijutsu," said Kakashi, slowly pulling out an item.

'Taijustu? That's hand to hand combat then why is he pulling out a weapon,' Naruto thought slowing down his run to be ready. In a flash Kakashi had an orange book with the title Icha Icha Paradise written on it. This caused a facefault with the three students.

'A book!' all three of them thought.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Naruto asked. Kakashi looked up from his book and shrugged.

"Well, I want to know what's going to happen next, but don't worry you won't even lay a scratch on me." Kakashi said in a bored tone. With that said Naruto saw red. With a fierce cry Naruto ran at the one eyed jounin and went in for straight punch while running thus lifting him off the ground. Kakashi dodged to the left but was a bit surprised when Naruto, using the momentum of his punch, leaned forward and landed on the hand he punched with. Naruto then pushed himself up so he was vertical and spun around flying out his legs putting him into a helicopter kick. With a quick block with his forearm, Kakashi pushed the leg off causing Naruto to spin the other way and making him pop back up on his feet. Spinning around Naruto flew out his right arm for a hay maker that was also blocked. However, after he tried to follow that up with a left snap kick Kakashi ducked under the leg and was momentarily lost from Naruto's view.

* * *

Up in the tree tops both Sasuke and Sakura looked on at the one sided fight. In their own minds the thoughts were a bit differing. 'Wow so he wasn't kidding when he wanted us to actually come at him seriously. But still Naruto's taijutsu isn't so bad. My Sasuke-kun's must be off the hook though! **Cha! Nobody can beat our Sasuke-kun**!' were Sakura's and Inner Sakura's thoughts.

Sasuke on the other hand was trying to look for any openings while thinking, 'That dobe has some surprising moves, but I don't think they can work on a jounin...hey wait that handsign!' As Sasuke thought this both him and Sakura saw Kakashi move behind Naruto with his hands in the tiger handsign. Both of them knew that that handsign usually signified a very destructive jutsu and with Kakashi being right behind Naruto there was nowhere for him to run. This led to Sakura screaming out a warning for him to run away.

* * *

"Naruto run! Get out of there!" Sakura screamed, frightened for the blonde. With a look behind him Naruto saw Kakashi with his hands in the seal ready to initiate his attack. Naruto's face turned scared as he dreaded what was going to happen next. However, what happened next was a surprise to all but Kakashi.

"Don't get caught from behind Naruto. Konoha Taijutsu no Ougi: Sennen Goroshi (Konoha's Ultimate Taijutsu: 1000 years of death)!" Kakashi yelled out jamming his fingers where the sun don't shine. With a burst of chakra Naruto was sent flying into the lake in the training ground, screaming in undeserved pain. With a sweatdrop both Sasuke and Sakura thought the same exact thing. 'What the hell was that?'

'Fuck that hurt! But I can't give up!... I'll never give up! Ever!' With that thought, Naruto set his plan in motion, determination shining in his eyes. As Naruto slowly pulled himself out of the water, Kakashi stood over him with his famous orange book.

"So Naruto are you still going to 'kick my ass' as you say?" Kakashi drawled out while turning a page.

"Shut up! I can do it!" Naruto yelled out balling his fist.

"Hmm I see, but can your skills back up your words. From what I can see you- nani!" Kakashi was cut off from his speech when another Naruto caught him from behind. Naruto jumped up with a triumphant smirk on his face while putting his hands in the cross shaped seal and calling out "Kage-bunshin no jutsu!", five more Naruto's appearing. With a great cry all the clones latched onto the surprised sensei.

In the trees the two other gennin were completely baffled on what happened. 'W-what! How did Naruto do that! Are those real clones!' Sakura thought. 'Real clones! How did the dobe figure that out!' Sasuke wondered in envy.

"Here I come Kakashi-sensei!" The real Naruto sprinted towards his sensei and pulled back his fist. With a loud crack Naruto smashed his fist into...Naruto! With a yell "He henge'd!" the Narutos got into a fight trying to figure out who the real Naruto was.

While this was going Sasuke thought, 'What an idiot. Kakashi used Kawarimi no jutsu and that dobe can't figure it out.' While Sasuke watched, Naruto got rid of the clones then proceeded to fall into a trap and Kakashi showed up to talk to Naruto. This was his chance. Sasuke launched three shuriken with a flick of his wrist and they were sent flying at the silver haired man. As Naruto yelled in surprise, Sasuke saw that Kakashi had used a replacement again and now no doubt knew where he was. With that thought in mind, Sasuke ran off.

* * *

After untying himself from the noose trap, Naruto finally got himself to the ground and looked to the sky. "Maa. I don't have much time left do I? I need to do something fast." Naruto sighed then jumped back to his feet and trekked off towards the woods enclosing training ground 7. As he came across a clearing he saw a sight that would be with him forever. Sasuke was neck deep in the dirt while Sakura was foaming at the mouth in front of the 'Rookie of the year'. His laughter lasted a good while before he finally dug Sasuke out and woke up Sakura.

"So, seriously, what are we going to do?" Naruto asked.

"Do what you like, but I work alone," Sasuke replied.

"But Sasuke-kun, even all three of us were no match for Kakashi sensei!" Sakura said. With his number one fan girl's exclamation ringing in his mind, Sasuke stopped dead in his tracks and grit his teeth. With all of his will power, he turned around and faced the other two potential genins.

"Okay then. What would you guys propose?" Sasuke asked. With confused looks each person looked to the other for an answer but no one knew what to say. The three potential genin were trying to figure out what to do but while this was happening Kakashi was standing in the middle of the training ground, reading his book. With a snap of his fingers Naruto got an idea, a totally random one, but hey if it works…

"I got it!" He said. And with that he laid the plan out for them.

* * *

"Hmm I wonder where they are? They don't have very much time left so what will they do?" Kakashi said aloud. His musings were cut short when a rain of shuriken came down on him. With a cry Naruto flew out of the trees with Sakura throwing two kunai in support. The kunai missed Kakashi and stuck off of something behind him, making the jounin look to see Sasuke coming at him with a flying kick. Quickly placing his book in his pocket, Kakashi blocked the kick, but this left him open to Naruto's axe kick from above. Grabbing Sasuke's ankle, Kakashi threw Sasuke into Naruto. As those two fell into a heap Sakura jumped over them and bombarded Kakashi with shuriken. Sasuke quickly jumped off of Naruto and ran towards the fight. With Kakashi backing up towards the two kunai that were stuck in a tree behind him, Sasuke jump kicked him back farther making the Jounin slide back a bit. Sakura than pulled a ninja wire that was connected to the kunai tripping Kakashi and having them latch on to his pants. With a quick burst of speed Sasuke kicked Kakashi into Naruto who had moved into position while the man was distracted, his hands into the cross-seal.

"Kage-bunshin no jutsu!" Naruto yelled. Five clones jumped from the ninja smoke, kicking the stunned jounin up and over to Sasuke who was already completing a set of seals, ending on the tiger seal.

"Katon: Housenka no jutsu! (Fire style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu)!" Sasuke then shot off three small fireballs that impacted Kakashi in the air. "Naruto! Now!" Sasuke yelled. Naruto jumped off each of his clones like a step ladder and flew above Kakashi with his hands in the ram seal. Cutting into her hands a bit, Sakura used the wires that were latched onto the jounin's pants and made it so that she could wrap the wires around him. She gasped in pain, but bared with it to make sure that this plan would work.

"Henge!" Naruto called out transforming his right arm into its Luffy mimicry. His sleeve was gone, leaving his whole arm showing. He didn't stop there and with a cry of "GOMU GOMU NO..." he swung his arm far back, stretching it to the surprise of everyone.

'What the HELL!' Kakashi thought.

With a shout of "PISOTRU!" Naruto shot his arm down with the greatest of speed slamming into the jounin and sending him dropping like a rock towards the other two genin. 'This is it' Naruto thought as his arm snapped back and returned to its normal state. 'Your turn Sasuke. I sent him down and now...' As Naruto thought this Sasuke tensed up his legs and watched their sensei fall with his stronger eyes. 'GRAB IT!' As that thought flashed across Naruto's mind Sasuke dove towards Kakashi and grabbed the bells while Naruto landed with a soft thump.

"Well dobe," Sasuke smiled "looks like your crazy plan worked." Naruto jumped into the air with a yell and ran towards their fallen sensei. With a burst of chakra, Kakashi broke the wire and got out of the small crater he made.

"My you guys actually worked together and you got the bells." Kakashi said. "Come here Sakura." As Sakura got her hands wrapped Naruto and Sasuke crowded around their sensei. Once he was finished the three genin looked up at him.

"So sensei, do we pass?" Sakura asked hopefully. With a hmmm Kakashi looked at all three of them. They did well and he was quite proud. With a eye smile Kakashi gave a curt nod.

"Yes congratulations! Team 7 is officially started!"


	3. Old drunks, Explanations, and “I am stro

Chapter 3: Old drunks, Explanations, and "I am strong enough!"

**(More looking over and editing for you guys)**

**Edited 6/18/11**

**Summary: In the ninja world the Sharingan is said to be one of the greatest doujutsus because of its amazing copying abilities. In the Naruto world the things we know like TV and games that we have now are real in his world and he has gotten ideas on how to be a better ninja. Behold the birth of the first mimic ninja! He will show those Sharingan wielders that he will use his own power. Many anime and game references. **

**AN: OK people time for the third chapter in the Mimic saga. To all the people who have read my story so far I hope you like it. And to the reviewers thanks for the suggestions!**

**Disclaimer: I will own it someday bwahaha! Naruto comes in and smashes Nanashi's head with a mallet. **

**Naruto: On with show!**

**Cover: Naruto smiling and sitting in the Hokage's chair with the Kage hat on his head while Sarutobi wears the straw hat and leaning against his chair with a confused expression.**

"This is Brood. Target is in sight."

"Blossom here, I am behind the target"

… "Orange above target."

"Orange you are bit late, but ready team on three..."

"Brood again, just wanted to ask who gave us these names."

Behind a tree Kakashi smiled while reading his book. "That's not important. Just be ready. One..." All three genin tensed up. "Two..." eyes zeroed in on the target. "THREE! Go GO!" Three blurs rushed from the trees and pounced onto a thrashing ball of fur.

"Blossom here, target is neutralized." Rang in Sakura while watching the menace known as Tora slash wildly at Naruto while Sasuke tried to pull the cat off and getting scratched himself.

"Good job team, let's head to the Hokage." Kakashi said humming and reading his book. But his reading was interrupted when he heard "CAN WE GET A BETTER MISION!"

Hokages office:

"Good job Team 7." The Hokage said as the team watched Tora getting crushed by his owner.

'Yes crush him. CRUSH HIM!' Naruto thought with a crazed look in his eyes. Out of nowhere he started to laugh maniacally as Tora whined in despair. Slowly backing away from Naruto, the rest of Team 7 awaited their next mission.

"Well now that the mission is over how bout another one, eh Team 7?" Asked the aged Hokage. Looking up, he saw a nod from Kakashi signaling him to go on. "Well we have weeding some gardens, walking dogs, planting some of the Yamanaka's flowers, oh and-"

"No no no NO NO! I am not doing another stupid mission! I'm a ninja now right? And ninjas don't do these kinds of things!" Naruto screamed, completely cutting off the Hokage. A sweat drop formed on the rest of team seven but two of them had the same thoughts as Naruto. "You know I'm strong enough now, Ojii-San and I need to show this village what kind of awesome Hokage I can be!"

'The dobe is right I need to get stronger and this isn't the ideal way.' Sasuke thought.

'Stupid Naruto is going to get us in trouble, as right as he is' 'Shanaro! I want to show Sasuke-kun how cool I am!'

Iruka stood up and threw a pencil at Naruto, smacking him in the forehead for the outburst. "Naruto! Don't you know the way that missions work! I taught this to you all in class. In fact all three of you should know this." Explaining to Team 7 of the dynamics of the missions and the way missions were assigned, Iruka finished up and opened his eyes to see Naruto talking about ramen and the rest of the team listening intently to him. Face faulting, Iruka yelled at them to get their attention.

"Mm? Oh you're done Iruka-san?" drawled Kakashi, causing a tick mark to grow on Iruka's head.

"Now, now Iruka it's ok. So you all think you are ready for a C rank? Well then Iruka, send in the client." As the door opened, Naruto and the others watched as a tall older man with a shock of grey hair walked in carrying a sake bottle. "Team 7 meet your charge, Tazuna."

As the older man walked into the office the smell of alcohol wafted off of his fisherman's garb. Tazuna looked at the people in front of him and his nose wrinkled in disgust. "These are my guards Hokage-sama? They all look incompetent; mostly the short one!"

"Hahaha who's the short one?" Naruto laughed before looking to his side and seeing that his companions were slightly taller than him. Trying and failing, Naruto clawed at the old man while Kakashi held him back.

'This is going to be a long trip' Kakashi thought.

"Whatever. Well I'm Tazuna the great bridge builder and I'll see you all at the gates to protect me then, if you can!"

Xxx

"Wahoo! Time to head out of here!" Naruto yelled as he led the team out of the gates. Smiling and looking at the passing trees he couldn't help but be excited for this new mission. He had hated the last month of tedious D rank missions and had trained hard to show his stuff. Though he didn't want to show his team just yet, he has been working on a new jutsu. He'd got the idea from Yu-Yu Hakosho, but sadly he hasn't completed it yet.

As Naruto drifted through his thoughts, Sasuke looked over the scenery and thought about his own goals. 'This mission is perfect, I can test myself and see how strong I am...how much stronger I need to become..'

Walking slowly down the road Sakura started to converse with Tazuna about his country. As they got to the topic of there not being any ninjas in Wave, a puddle that they were passing suddenly exploded outward, two ninjas emerging, each with a gauntlet on opposing hands. A chain that was connecting the two brothers wrapped around Kakashi's body and with a swift flick of their wrists, Kakashi was torn to pieces. A shrill scream from Sakura pierced the air as Kakashi's body parts fell to the ground. Naruto looked over to see Tazuna and Sakura, both looking pale and then looked at Sasuke who was looking at the ground in disbelief. He couldn't blame the guy, right now he was scared out of his mind.

"One down..." one of the ninjas whispered. Looking at the rest of the team the two rogue ninjas ran towards them, "and number two is next." As the two ninjas ran at Naruto, he suddenly froze.

'What's going on…why can't I move? Am I scared. Am I going to die?' As Naruto struggled to move Sasuke appeared in front of him and split kicked the ninjas back. In one deft motion he then threw a shuriken to pin down the chain to a tree and then a kunai inside the ring of the shuriken to give it extra weight. Seeing this show of skill in front of him, Naruto shook his head and pulled out his own kunai. He wasn't going to be outdone by Sasuke, not like this. Rubbing their heads, the rogue ninjas detached from their chain and ran in opposite directions. Sharing a look with Sasuke, Naruto stayed in his place while Sasuke ran towards their charge.

Naruto quickly threw a kunai at the man to keep him at a distance. While the man jumped into the air Naruto performed a jutsu. "Kage bunshin no jutsu!" Two clones popped up in the air behind the man and started to confront him. Tying a wire to a kunai, Naruto lobbed it at the man's feet. The kunai stuck by his foot and the wire caused him to stumble enough for one clone to grab his head and slam his knee into the ninja's face slightly shocking him for a second. This was Naruto's chance and with his hands in the ram seal he called out "Henge!" His right arm was covered in a puff of smoke and as the smoke cleared; his arm was revealed to show that his sleeve was gone and in Luffy mode. While the rogue ninja was disoriented the two clones that were attacking the rogue grabbed his arms and held him steady while Naruto pulled his arm back yelling "Gomu gomu no!" Shooting forward, the fist smashed into the man's face as Naruto called out, "PISTORU!" Hit with all the released tension, the ninja flew back into a tree crumpling into himself, but not before giving Naruto one last present.

As Naruto took care of one ninja, Sasuke ran at the other and jump kicked him in the facemask causing him to choke and stumble. As Sasuke was still in the air he ran through a quick series of hand seals landing on the tiger seal. "Katon: Housenka no justu!" Tumbling towards the ground, Sasuke shot off two small fire balls towards the ninja. One hit in the stomach while the other smashed into the ground next to him. Capitalizing on the ninja's weakness Sasuke grabbed his arm and flipped the ninja over his shoulder, quickly kicking his chest while he landed. As the air left the ninja's lungs he grabbed Sasuke's ankle and pulled. With a grunt Sasuke fell and watched as the ninja rushed towards Sakura and Tazuna. Frightened beyond belief, but swallowing her fear Sakura moved in front of Tazuna holding a kunai. Running with as much speed as he could pull from his reserves, Sasuke appeared in front of Sakura and Tazuna, tensing in anticipation. The rogue ninja raised his arm, but the blow never came. With a casual air, Kakashi's form appeared in front of the ninja stopping him in his tracks with a clothesline.

"Mah, well, you guys certainly took care of things," Kakashi said looking around at his teams handiwork.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura screamed in surprise and relief.

"Sensei we thought you were dead!" Naruto yelled as he ran towards his sensei in visible relief. Sasuke quickly scanned the ground where Kakashi 'perished' and saw the remains of a poor log.

"Kawarimi no jutsu (Replacement Jutsu)? So fast…" Sasuke whispered. 'His timing with the jutsu was incredible and the afterimage normally caused was so well timed that we all thought he died…that is what being a jounin is.' Sasuke looked at his sensei with a bit more respect after that stunt. Walking over to his team while dragging the other ninja, Kakashi looked at each of them with a sense of pride. They all handled themselves well. Well Naruto did freeze up in the beginning so he was going to have to talk to him about that.

"Kakashi-sensei why didn't you help us?" Sakura asked.

"Because I needed to see what these two ninja's wanted, oh and congrats on defeating your first pair of chunin. These two are the missing ninja's known as the Demon Brothers, and if you'll excuse me I need to have a talk with these two." And with that Kakashi walked behind the trees taking along the unconscious Brother by the tree. Watching their sensei leave with the two missing-nin, Team 7 couldn't help a shiver running down their spines from the ominous feeling Kakashi's eye smile gave off.

Xxx

Kakashi came out from behind the tree and slowly walked to the group. "So Tazuna-san it seems we have something to discuss." Naruto looked at Tazuna and saw sweat forming on his brow.

'Was he lying?'

"Ok ok! I'm sorry but my village doesn't have enough money to pay for anything higher." And thus the story of Tazuna and his village was told. As the story ended the team went into a huddle that caused Tazuna to face fault. 'My story was super sad, and they huddle!'

"So what should we do?"

"I'm not sure, he isn't lying about this."

"Well, let's take a vote team." After that each team member approved for going on, and Kakashi turned around and gave Tazuna a pointed look. "Well Tazuna-san, it seems like we are continuing the mission."

"Yatta! Let's go guys. I'm not backing down from anything!" Naruto yelled. "Everyone get ready! We're going to Nami!" Naruto yelled as he threw up his arm. Kakashi quickly grabbed Naruto's right arm.

"Naruto, did you know that you got cut?" Kakashi asked. Naruto shook his head and looked at the cut on his right hand. When the blonde started digging around in his pockets for a roll of bandages, Kakashi grabbed Naruto's arm. "Naruto, you should probably take care of the poison first…"

"Poison? What poison?" Naruto yelped, eyes wide.

"The poison I noticed on the Demon Brother's clawed gauntlets while I was 'questioning' them." Before the Jounin could explain the appropriate first aid methods, Naruto snatched a kunai from his ammo pouch and stabbed it into the open wound, greatly increasing the blood flow. "Naruto!" Kakashi snapped, "That isn't the best way to treat a poisoned wound." Kakashi held up Naruto's bleeding hand, "You could bleed to death."

"No its okay sensei, when my arm is like this it's completely rubber. So it can withstand a bit more damage." Naruto said, moving it around to show that his arm was bleeding less than a normal arm. Forming a half ram seal, Naruto dispelled his jutsu and his arm returned to normal showing the injuries that were taken in the rubber form were the same in his normal form.

'Odd. If his arm was normal then he would have bled more. And even when he transformed his arm back, the wound was exactly same as it was in his rubber mode…I need explanations.' Kakashi shook his head and gestured for his group to follow him. "Well I left those Demon Brothers restrained and sent a message to Konoha. You all will receive a significant bonus for their capture." Looking back he saw Sakura and Sasuke nod while they bandaged up Naruto's hand, and Naruto's extra big smile at all the extra money for ramen. With an exasperated sigh from Kakashi they headed off further into wave.

Xxx

The boat's slow rocking against the waves was all that could be heard through the thick fog…well that and the moans of Naruto as he tried not to hurl over the boat's edge.

"Uhhhgghh…go slowweerrrr," Naruto moaned.

"Shut up Naruto-baka! I'm tired of your whining." Sakura fumed while smacking Naruto upside the head. With a grunt of pain and a glare at Sakura, Naruto grumbled that Sasuke never got hit and such. Looking at the bridge that they were passing, Naruto couldn't believe the size of it. Whistling at the sight, he was shushed by the boat driver.

"Quiet! We are in Wave territory now so Gato's men are patrolling around here." The boat driver said in slight panic. With a quick nod everyone quieted down and sat for the rest of the trip.

As everyone got off and started walking, Kakashi looked to Naruto. "Naruto care to explain this technique of yours a little more?" At this the rest of the team turn to join Kakashi in looking at Naruto. Sasuke was curious on that attack of his. It could give him even more power to defeat his brother and knowing the one track mind Sasuke has…well...

"Well…um sensei I'm just using the Henge and transforming my arm." Naruto said confused. He didn't exactly know what was wrong with his transformation.

"A transformation doesn't really change your body structure, dobe. Tell me what you are really doing." Sasuke growled coming closer to Naruto.

"Back off teme! I just use Henge and it changes! Want an up close demonstration?" Naruto spat back placing his hands in the ram sign. He really hated it when Sasuke talked down to him. Plus the bastard was insulting his technique.

"Naruto don't tal-" Sakura started but was stopped by Kakashi. He had to admit even he wanted to see what Naruto did.

"Do it then!"

"Fine! Henge no jutsu!" In a cloud of smoke, Naruto's right arm transformed into Luffy mode. Holding it up to smack the other boy he was taken aback by the poking he was getting from his sensei.

"Hmm amazing, it feels just like rubber." Kakashi said as he pulled at it. With that the rest of the team started to pull and tug at Naruto's arm while Tazuna watched with a sweat drop forming. 'This is what ninjas do?' Shaking his head he called to them.

"Oi my village is close. How 'bout we start movin' now!" Looking up team seven scratched their heads sheepishly and started moving, all except Naruto who was shaking his head in humiliation at being treated like a doll. Taking a step forward, he heard a noise and threw a kunai into the bushes. Everyone stopped moving again and looked up in alarm. Running towards his kunai, he was surprised and horrified to find a fluffy white bunny shaking in fear.

"Nooooo! Fluffy bunny!" As Naruto grabbed the bunny into his arms, squeezing it, Sakura ran up to Naruto and hit him on the head for scaring everyone. Fortunately for everyone, Kakashi was analyzing the situation.

'White rabbit….it's summer they shouldn't be here. They're normally out in the winter so that means…!' "EVERYONE DOWN!" Right as Kakashi yelled those words, he ran and pulled down Tazuna and Sakura while Sasuke and Naruto hit the ground flat, avoiding the biggest sword any of them has ever seen. Looking up to see the sword slam and stick into the trunk of a tree, the team froze as killing intent permeated the air.

"Well well…if it isn't Sharingan no Kakashi. What an honor." A figure flashed onto the imbedded blade revealing a well-muscled man with a headband and bandages covering the lower half of his face and trailing off of his shoulders. The headband showed the Mist village symbol but a slash through the Mist sign gave this man the title of a missing nin. He was shirtless and had dark camo pants and sandals to finish his menacing look.

Staring at the imposing man, Team 7 slowly stood up to face this new threat. Shaking his arm, Naruto's limb turned to normal in a puff of smoke. Tensing in anticipation the young genins and jounin looked forward. It was time for the next battle. Momochi Zabuza had entered the picture

**A.N: FOOORRRGIIVEEE MEE! I'm sorry guys and girls for not updating so soon! Sooo much projects and tests so it was a lot of work!**

***Naruto comes in and smashes Nanashi over the head* No excuses! I wanted to get on with the show but nooo, you lazy ass! I'm goin to kill you!**

**Nanashi: Ahhhh! Kakashi save me!**

**Kakashi: well you did spend a lot of time off. So..*continues to read book***

**Nanashi: Bastards all of you!**

**Sasuke and Sakura: Continue to read so we don't have to clean up Nanashi**

***Scream from Nanashi* or whats left of him**


	4. Demon of Mist run in with a Mimic

Ch 4: Demon of the Mist's run in with a Mimic.

Summary: In the ninja world the Sharingan is said to be one of the greatest doujutsus because of its amazing copying abilities. In the Naruto world the things we know like TV and games that we have now are real in his world and he has gotten ideas on how to be a better ninja. Behold the birth of the first mimic ninja! He will show those Sharingan wielders that he will use his own power. Many anime/manga and game references.

A.N.: Hey everyone Nanashi here! Welcome to episode 4 of Behold the Mimic. I would love for this to have some awesome music and anime opening. (LM.C – Yellow Beauty for the first Season!) Anyways, come on people! Tell me what ya think cause I would love to hear your opinions! So review! Oh and yeah and sorry but there is no bashing here. It will keep a LOT of canon but I am making it so that they will all be treated as ninjas that they became. Sorrrrryyy bash lovahs. o.O

Disclaimer: Blah blah I don't own Naruto or anything else…but I will soon right Naruto!

Naruto:... Can we just get on with this. I'm itching for a fight!

Nanashi: Meh I get no respect!

Cover: Naruto looking up at the looming figure of Zabuza, chakra spiraling around him like a twister. Zabuza is pointing his sword at him a masked figure behind him while Naruto holds a demon wind shuriken in his left hand, and has his right hand pointing up at the two, pointer finger and thumb in the classic gun position

_Staring at the imposing man, team seven slowly stood up to face this new threat. Shaking his arm, Naruto's arm turned to normal in a puff of smoke. Tensing in anticipation the young genins and jounin looked forward. It was time for the next battle! Momochi Zabuza has entered the picture!_

"So Sharingan Kakashi, I wouldn't have ever imagined I would be meeting you here," the missing nin stated, looking down at team seven plus one. Dropping down from the sword, Zabuza came falling down, slicing into the tree as he fell. As his feet touched the ground, he disappeared in a burst of speed and appeared in front of the team. Tensing up, Kakashi pulled out a kunai, his left hand reaching for his tilted headband. Hearing his team pull weapons he turned to them and shook his head.

"Stay out of this you don't know what this man is capable of…Momochi Zabuza, the Demon of the Mist," the silver haired sensei spoke behind him.

"Haha so you know of me well I'm honored Kakashi," Zabuza stated. Kakashi frowned and pulled up his head band, revealing the covered eye. A closed eye with a scar running down it was revealed, and as it opened the Sharingan sprang into life, its three tomoes spinning. "Ah the Sharingan! I am honored Copy-nin, but it seems like I need to blind you then. **Kirigakure no jutsu!**" yelled out Zabuza holding his hands so that one half ram seal was above his head and another in front of his chest. An ominous mist slowly filled the area, covering everything from view.

Sasuke gasped his mind a mix of emotions. "Sharingan what's that," Naruto asked.

"It is doujutsu that is special to the Uchiha family," Sasuke said. "It is said to be able to copy any nin, gen, or taijutsu. It gives the person the ability to perceive things faster and some even think it can see into the future…" 'But how does sensei have it? Could he be an Uchiha? No impossible then how?"

"Well your wonderful doujutsus may be able to do that, but it won't save you," Zabuza said unleashing an insane amount of killing intent. Everyone froze as the killing intent, and Sasuke slowly reached for his kunai pouch as he thought, 'I can't do this! This is what it's like when I know I'm going to die.'

"Sasuke! It's ok I won't let anything happen to you guy," Kakashi said looking back at his team, eye smiling.

"Strong words from a dead man," Zabuza stated appearing between Kakashi and the rest of the team. With a slash of his sword, Kakashi was torn in two. Kakashi's body floated in the air before bursting in water. "**Mizu bunshin! **To have copied my jutsu through mist".

"Correct Zabuza," Kakashi said as he appeared behind Zabuza, holding a kunai to his neck.

"Wha-what happened!" Naruto exclaimed.

"As I said the Sharingan allows for jutsu copying. Kakashi-sensei must have copied one of Zabuza's moves," Sasuke explained while the fight continued. As the two men exchanged blows, Kakashi was suddenly surprised and kicked onto a nearby lake. Sputtering, Kakashi pulled himself on top of the lake using chakra when he noticed that the water was heavier than normal.

"Fool, this is my terrain. **Suroi no jutsu,**" Zabuza appeared behind Kakashi and put one hand forward as a globe of water formed and trapped the silver haired man.

"Shit!" Looking at his team Kakashi yelled at them. "Run get out of here!" Kakashi struggled to get free, but the water was too heavy and he wasn't able to make any moves. He watched in horror as his captor's remaining hand formed a seal and a water clone formed in front of the original.

"It's all over for your precious students, eh Kakashi?" Zabuza chuckled. The clone started to move towards the genins, and as it got closer, Sasuke pulled a kunai from his pouch. Once its foot touched the shore, Sasuke bolted towards it, shuriken flying and kunai raised.

"Graaaaaghh- ugh," the black haired boys yell was cut off as the water clone grabbed him, and in one deft motion, slammed him to the ground. The Uchiha gasped in pain and was subjected to a double dose of the stuff as the missing-nin clone slammed its foot into the poor boys back. Sasuke screamed out as he could feel the heel on his back crushing him.

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura yelled. She wanted to race toward him, but her feet wouldn't move. Sakura was frozen in fear as she watched the demon of the mist look towards her. However that didn't stop her insane blonde teammate. A rush of yellow went by her, and Sakura could only watch as Naruto yelled hysterically towards their foe.

Naruto knew what he was doing was stupid and one of the most idiotic things he has ever done. But these were his teammates and he really started to think of them as friends. They were his first friends, and no one was going to take them away. Naruto slid under the arm aimed towards his head and aimed a kunai towards the leg holding Sasuke. He didn't expect the foot slamming into him and smacking off his headband, the kunai dropping harmlessly next to the leg. Rolling backwards to lessen the impact, Naruto watched as his headband was crushed under the bunshin's free foot.

"What are you doing? I told you to run!" the submerged from of Kakashi yelled at them. "This guy is way out of your league!" Sakura watched in fear as their sensei's eyes seemed to be filled with panic. "But Kakashi-sensei, we can't run if we tried he'd kill you and...and.." Sakura was cut off as the real Zabuza cut her off.

"Kill you all?" the nukenin finished. "You kids know nothing of being a ninja when I was your age I already killed." The shock ran across the genin as Kakashi told them the story of the Kiri's genin exam. By the time it was done Zabuza was looking up, a sick smile on his face. "Ahh memories…"

"And that is why you all need to go now!" the trapped jounin yelled. Naruto looked towards the clone and spoke with conviction, "You told us those who break the rules are trash, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash. I'm not going anywhere!"

Growling in anger, Naruto grabbed a few shuriken and lobbed them at clone. The flying pieces were easily dodged, but it served its purpose of distracting the water clone long enough for Sasuke to grab the forgotten kunai and slash at the leg that was keeping him down. Not wanting to be dispelled the clone backed away.

Naruto watched as Sasuke grabbed the headband and jumped towards him. The blonde haired ninja took the hitai-ate gratefully and tied it back on while keeping an eye on the water made clone. "Sasuke are you ok?" Naruto asked. He got the usual 'hn' as a response signifying an ok, and with that Naruto smirked as he started to form a plan. "Good to hear. But we need to free Kakashi-sensei now."

"How are we supposed to do that dobe?" Sasuke asked.

"Follow my lead," was Naruto's response. Before Sasuke could reply, the orange wearing ninja was already running towards the Zabuza in front of him. "**Kage bunshin no jutsu!**" Naruto called out. With that, a plume of smoke obscured everyone's vision and instead of one there were five Narutos. The Narutos started to separate hoping to catch the Zabuza clone from all sides. As Zabuza-clone prepared himself and the onlookers watched, no one knew the real Naruto transformed himself into a windmill shuriken in one of the clone's bags. It was weird being transformed into a material object instead of transforming a part of his body. It felt like his real body was scrunched into a ball, and he had no senses except for touch and hearing. Thanks to that he was able to understand a rough image of where he was. His thoughts as the lonely shuriken that could were cut off as he heard his main clone, which shall lovingly be called Naru-ichi (You'll see him more throughout the story), yell out to his black haired partner. 'Show time,' Naruto thought. Sending an immense amount of chakra to his right hand, which was very awkward thanks to his position, he waited for Sasuke.

Sasuke caught the flying windmill shuriken and noticed with a sharp eye that the one thrown to him was different. With a smirk Sasuke pulled his own from his pack and quickly stuck the two next to each other making it look like one. 'Nice plan Naruto-dobe. Let's see how it goes,' he thought. Flicking his wrist Sasuke opened up the shuriken and the fake behind it while calling out, "**Demon wind shuriken: Windmill of shadows!**" Sasuke jumped into the air and with a loud cry hurled his weapon out. The Zabuza-clone watched in mild fascination as the shuriken went for him, but a shocked expression crossed its face when the weapon curved and headed for the real Zabuza. The shuriken screamed towards the mist-nin who held Kakashi tight in a water prison.

"Really? You think that can work against me?" Zabuza plucked the windmill shuriken easily through the air as it went towards him. However he was surprised to see another shuriken flying towards him. 'A second one, in the shadow of the first?' Sasuke and Naru-ichi smirked as the transformed Naruto spiraled towards Zabuza.

CLANG!

Zabuza lazily smacked the second shuriken up making it fly above him with the first shuriken. The people on shore had a mix of emotions. Tazuna and Sakura were in complete shock, 'H..he just swatted the attack away!' Naru-ichi felt like face palming and Sasuke…Sasuke was in between. 'He could have dodged to the side, he could have ducked, fuck he could have even jumped! But no he smacked Naruto into the sky…He is so going to be pissed.'

And right on cue everyone turned their heads up as a puff of smoke grabbed their attention. "Son of a bitch that hurt my ears! You know how bad that rang through my ears!" Everyone watched as Naruto's body appeared. His body was upside down, right hand in a gun position pointing towards the mist-nin, his left hand gripping the other for support.

_Flashback_

_Naruto had just gotten back home from another D-rank and was very annoyed. He spent his day doing those missions (cough-chores-cough), and his nights training to be able to use the signature move of Yusuke from YuYu Hakusho. After learning he could he somewhat use Luffy's move, he delved deeper into the shows he watched searching for something he could use. He couldn't do much at his level, but he found something. After grabbing a ramen cup to eat, Naruto ran out towards a training ground._

_He had a vague idea of what to do to get the move to work, but it would take time. 'So Yusuke looked like he focused all his spiritual energy on his pointer finger. Like hell I have that kind of control! Maybe if send an immense amount of chakra to my forearm and then slowly siphon that off into my pointer finger I can mimic what I saw.'_

_Hours upon hours Naruto practiced the move, his arm totally numb at his side. As he saw daylight breaking upon the horizon, he was able to put together somewhat of a checklist to be able to even produce the move and it went…_

_Flashback END!_

'Step 1: Collect and send a LOT of chakra to my right forearm… check!' Naruto thought, luckily he started doing that beforehand, because even for him this took a lot of chakra to do.

'Step 2: Target lock and start sending stored chakra towards pointer finger,' as Naruto thought this he started push the as much chakra as he could to his finger. The end of his finger started to shine, slowly glowing brighter and brighter.

'Step 3: Push almost all stored chakra into singled out spot. Leave last bit of the chakra as the "trigger" and point, aim, and be ready…' Naruto's pointer finger glowed brightly as chakra started to form around it, encompassing it in a small blue ball. Luckily he was able to do this the quickest he ever had because this wasn't the fastest process… yet. He was just glad his opponent was surprised. "Okay you eye-brow less bastard, hope you're ready for this!" Zabuza's eye twitched at that comment and was ready to yell back, but was cut off.

Naruto used the last bit of chakra as his "trigger" and sent it out as hard as he could towards his finger while he let go of his control of the mass of chakra at the end. The result…

"**Reigan(Spirit gun)!**" Naruto yelled. A small blue blast of chakra rocketed from his finger with such force that it pushed him a few feet higher. Zabuza watched in morbid fascination as the blue bullet of chakra careened towards him and his prisoner. Not wanting to find out what that attack was capable of, the sword wielder jumped away, letting go of his jutsu. Naruto fell from the sky a smile on his face before his arm exploded in pain. "GRRAAAGGHH!" the boy screamed as he plunged down into the water. His final vision was of his sensei standing in front of him before he passed out.

"So you have any idea what he did?"

"No Sasuke-kun, but I know I've seen it before."

"I have too. It's from that T.V. show that is on."

Naruto awoke to the sound of his teammates talking. Cracking one eye open, he saw Sasuke and Sakura sitting over him. Turning his head slightly he saw his silver haired sensei sleeping on a bed making him notice he was lying on a comfy mattress on the ground. "Ughhhh guys I can hear you," Naruto spoke, his arm throbbing. Sasuke and Sakura looked down at their blonde haired teammate and slowly helped him into a sitting position.

"Where are we?" Naruto asked.

"We are at Tazuna's house," Sakura replied. Naruto nodded and slowly stood up. "Dobe, what was that move that you used?" Naruto looked over to Sasuke to see him stand up and lean against Kakashi's bed.

"Which one?"

"You know which one I'm talking about," Sasuke growled.

"I know that it's just fun to piss you off," Naruto sat on the side of their sensei's bed and massaged his sore arm. "You ever seen YuYu Hakusho?" He received a nod so he continued. "What you just saw was Yusuke Urameshi's main move the **Reigan**. I tried to use his move my own way like I am with the Luffy move."

"Teach it to me."

"You know what Sasuke you can go fu-" Naruto's anger was cut off as he felt a hand on his shoulder. Naruto looked over to see Kakashi grab onto his shoulder trying to placate him. "Kakashi-sensei you're up huh? What happened?"

"You passed out after using that move that I will hope you won't use again until you have more chakra control, and you Sasuke, I'm going to say this now, do NOT attempt that move." Sasuke gave him a confused look; even Naruto was a bit puzzled. "I'll tell you after we discuss something," Kakashi stated. And with that the discussion of Zabuza's "death" was discussed.

With the new knowledge in mind we now find our lovable genin in a forest looking at their sensei with a confused look. "So we are climbing trees?" Sakura asked. Kakashi nodded to them with his patented eye-smile in place. "Yes Sakura, that is correct."

The young ninja looked at the tree and back at their sensei, doing it a few times, before Kakashi sighed and motioned them to watch. Shifting his crutch, he made the ram seal and started to focus chakra to his feet. Once he did that, he proceeded to make his students drop their jaws in amazement, watching their silver haired sensei walk up the tree completely parallel to the ground. "So this is your guys' training. Channel chakra to your feet and be able to walk all the way up this tree." Kakashi explained. He then threw down a kunai at each of their feet, "Use those to track your progress. I suggest a running start to help get momentum."

Naruto grabbed the kunai from the ground and watched as his teammates started to gather their chakra. Shrugging, he put his hands the ram seal and directed as much chakra as he could to his feet. Focusing on his tree, Naruto pushed off and ran forward. One step, two steps, three ste-.

Crack…BOOM!

The blonde ninja was shot off his tree and hit the ground rolling to a stop, his eyes swirled in dizziness. "Someone get the license of that car?.." Naruto groaned out. Kakashi sweat dropped and walked to where Naruto was lying in a heap. He nudged the down boy with his toe getting a groan in response. Shaking his head, Kakashi looked to see Sasuke jump off after five or six steps and back flip to the ground.

"Well that sure was easier than I thought," Kakashi heard. Looking up he saw Sakura lounging on a branch a smile on her face.

"Well look at that seems Sakura is closer to being Hokage then you Naruto," Naruto flinched angrily as he got up. "And who knows, maybe she can avenge the Uchiha clan," Sasuke's fist clenched causing it to crack. "But then again from what I see Sakura is already tired," Kakashi said cutting off Sakura who was about to yell at him for insulting her Sasuke-kun. "Here's the thing all of you come by me so I can finish what I was about to say in the house. You Sakura," Kakashi said pointing at Sakura, "have some of the best chakra I have ever seen in a genin." Sakura perked up at that but her happiness was cut short when she heard, "But you have the stamina of a three year old."

Sasuke and Naruto face faulted at the bluntness of how he said that while Sakura went from shocked to extremely angry. Kakashi however continued, "You Sasuke are in the middle of these two. You have moderate chakra control for a genin, which is good, and you have a higher chakra reserves then average. That's good, but we'll work on the control and you have a bigger problem that we need to fix. A very big problem," Sasuke looked perplexed, from what he just heard he was the best out of all of them, but his smirk was shot down when he heard that last part. "You have the biggest superiority complex and a one track mind of an adolescent preschooler. Oh and the stubbornness of a donkey, and-"

"Alright, I get it! Enough with my faults and move down the line you ass," Sasuke growled out, his eye twitching dangerously. Naruto tried to hide snickering in the background, but stopped immediately when Sasuke glared at him. Naruto held up his hands saying, "Hey I have faults too."

"Yes you do Naruto," Kakashi agreed. "Which is why I came to you last, I want to explain to you why I told Sasuke not to even attempt what you did. In fact I don't want you to do it until you have more chakra control. You Naruto have more chakra reserves then should be possible in a genin. In fact you may have more than me in a few years, and right now your very close to beating some chunin in chakra capacity." Naruto grinned while Sasuke's eye twitched some more, "but that's the thing Naruto, you have no control…at all." Kakashi deadpanned.

"Hah! In your face you orange bastard! Wipe that shit eating grin off your face!" Sasuke yelled in one of the most uncharacteristic things he has ever done. The wind howled as the forest became completely quiet. Sakura, Naruto, and even Kakashi had wide eyes and mouths hanging in shock as Sasuke registered what he just did. Blushing in embarrassment, Sasuke crossed his arms over his chest trying to regain his composure and 'hnned'.

"Um…yes as I was saying," Kakashi continued looking warily at his charges. 'They're all insane'. "So Naruto you have a lot of chakra which was probably why that **Spirit Gun **was able to even be used. You basically overcharged your chakra and shot it out and because you have so much chakra you didn't really feel a drain, but do to the overload you probably tore your arm up pretty bad. That's why, Sasuke, I said do not attempt that move. For one, you don't have nearly enough chakra and two imagine how bad that must have hurt our blonde idiot. I can say for myself that he heals pretty fast, one of his few talents for some reason, and with his great way to take pain and heal imagine what would happen to you with less chakra and the inability to heal fast." Sasuke nodded and reluctantly agreed. The jutsu seemed to him more bad then good. He'll stick with his fire jutsu then blow off his arm.

Naruto also nodded, promising to himself that he'd put that move on hold until he could get a little more control. Kakashi looked at his student and smiled, "Now here's the deal I want you all to be able to do this tree climbing in two days, reach the top of the tree and I'll tell you what," the three ninja's ears perked up. "I'll train each of you individually in something specific. An advanced training exercise, each." Kakashi looked up to Sakura, "You too Sakura you may have reached that branch, but you're already tired." Kakashi turned to walk away but looked behind his back and said, "Oh by the way think of this as a team building exercise because I'm not teaching any of you until you all can run up and down that tree to my liking! Ja ne!" And with that said, he Shunshinedaway in a swirl of leaves.

_Two days later_

Kakashi whistled as he strolled to where his students should be training. As he reached the clearing he was a bit surprised to see no one there, but his musing were cut off as three kunai landed in front of him. Smirking to himself, Kakashi looked up and saw Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto each on top of their own respected trees.

"So sensei I think we may be ready for that extra training."

Nanashi: Yo Nananshi here. Sooooo sorry for the late late LATEEE update. You learn as you get older that it's harder and harder to write. But now that I have more time I should be able to pull out chapter five very, very soon. So to all readers and potential readers…Gomen! Oh and sorry to you Naruto gang.

Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura hold swords ready to pounce.

Naruto: You will die if you don't bring out another chapter soon.

Sasuke and Sakura: We must not be forgotten!

Screams fill the air as Kakashi reads his book.

Kakashi: Read, review, and help make it so our author doesn't die. Thank ya and good night!


	5. Hiho Hiho off to Fight We Go

Chapter 5: Hiho hiho! It's off to fight we go!

Summary: In the ninja world the Sharingan is said to be one of the greatest doujutsus because of its amazing copying abilities. In the Naruto world the things we know like TV and games that we have now are real in his world and he has gotten ideas on how to be a better ninja. Behold the birth of the first mimic ninja! He will show those Sharingan wielders that he will use his own power. Many anime/manga and game references.

**A.N: Episode 5 comes to fruition! Yellow Beautyyy by LM.C ftw! Once we get into the next arc what do you the people want as the next song? Well that's up till you, but until then I think this song is still the best to use for the weird little opening in my head. Well like I said on the last chapter I'm sorry I haven't updated in a long time since episode 3. But hey, I'm hoping I can get things done faster cause I have soooo many ideas. Oh and my story Breaker of Truth is still alive but in a deeeep sleep…ok so I'm not really focusing much on it, but I will. Also, about Naruto's chakra. I saw the reviews, so here's the thing his true chakra level is revealed and the reasoning about what I said will also be said. So anyways on with the show!**

**Disclaimer: I want to own Naruto and all this but until I become famous…sadness desu.**

**Cover: Naruto laying on a hill, grass blowing in the wind. A hand is raised towards the misty grey sky, holding a pure white mask. A thoughtful look is on his face as it seems that he is focusing on the mask. A pair of red gleaming eyes looks through the veil of mist towards the blonde boy. **

_Smirking to himself, Kakashi looked up and saw Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto each on top of their own respected trees._

"_So sensei I think we may be ready for that extra training."_

Kakashi looked at each of his students individually before walking and handing each of them an orange book. Because of his reading habits during meetings, and the fact that the book he read around them was orange, him giving them each an orange book ended…with every one of his students trying to crush and stomp on him.

"What the hell is this you perverted excuse for a human!" Sakura yelled trying to crush his face with the spine of the book _"Shanaro! Die die die! You silver haired horn dog!"_ Kakashi slipped away from their "justice" and watched silently as they beat the ground, the dust they blew up shrouding whatever vision they had.

"So are you done?" Kakashi asked. The three genin looked up in shock before grumbling and getting back in line. "So now that you are calmed down let me explain. Those books aren't what you think they are. In fact why would I even give you my precious," Kakashi stated pulling his Icha Icha out of apparently nowhere. Team 7 sweat dropped but stayed silent so that he could continue. "Anyways if you would calm down this first part is individual so," Kakashi made two **kage-bunshins** and continued, "each of you follow one of me and let's get started."

XxX

_With Sakura_

One of the Kakashi's brought Sakura to an empty part of the forest away from the two boys and motioned for her to open the book. Sakura looked down and opened the cover and watched as a piece of paper fell down. She picked up the paper and then tried to flip the pages of the rest of the book but to no avail. It seemed like the book, other than the cover, was completely glued together. As she pulled and tugged with all her might, the Kakashi with her started to chuckle before saying, "Try reading that paper in there."

Sakura glared at him before looking at the slip of paper. "Dear Sakura, for your training exercise, we are going to be working on…your stamina and body?" Sakura read with some confusion. "Kakashi-sensei what do you mean work on my stamina and body?"

Kakashi looked at her and then walked in front of her. Charging some chakra to his hand he then flicked her on the forehead and sent her sprawling on the ground. "That is what I mean dear Sakura. If you were Naruto or even Sasuke you would have just had your head knocked back. You, however, have the strength of a new academy student. In fact I'm surprised that no one has ever told you this. I have read on your dietary habits and that's going to change as well. Once you are at my satisfactory level of physical ability you can open that book." Kakashi picked up the pink haired girl and eye smiled. For some reason Sakura believed that smile would be the greatest thing she would ever hate for this training.

_With Sasuke_

Sasuke looked over the paper that fell out of his book, rereading it over and over again. Looking at his sensei he finally spoke. "Meditation, you want me to meditate?" Sasuke asked unbelieving what he read. The Kakashi nodded and smiled. He walked over to the genin and sat in a lotus position, gesturing for his student to join. Sasuke looked at him strangely before sitting across him in the exact position. "I need strength and this does nothing to give me strength. Just teach me a jutsu and-" Sasuke was cut off as a hand smacked him across the head. Reeling in pain and surprise, the dark haired boy looked up in anger.

The white haired sensei looked Sasuke dead in the eyes and started to speak, "That is your problem. You think that a jutsu makes you strong; you think you deserve the power that many work for. You do not ask for training, you demand moves; you have become spoiled and have no conscience telling you what you are doing. That is what we will be working on as your training exercise. When you are able to understand a little more about yourself then that book will open. And that book there, Sasuke, holds the real training." Sasuke flinched at every insult to his personality as Kakashi spoke. He could feel himself getting angrier and angrier, but as his sensei finished his speech he could see truth…truth he never thought about.

"So…I need to do this because I need to understand myself?" Kakashi nodded letting him finish. "And once I'm able to meditate to a point of your liking then you will let me read the book, huh?" again Sasuke received a nod. Looking from the book, the note, and back to his sensei, Sasuke nodded and closed his eyes before saying, "I want to see how this meditation goes, and I want to know what is in that book."

The Kakashi nodded a bit before watching the Uchiha stalk away. "Naruto can transform better than any illusion. But you have an illusion you need to confront for yourself. It's time you got rid of it…Sasuke," the Kakashi whispered so that no one could hear him.

_With Naruto_

"You're kidding right?"

"No, no Naruto, this is what you need to do,"

Naruto looked at his paper then at the lake that he was lead to. "So your saying that my control for chakra is that bad, that I need to do another chakra control exercise?" Naruto yelled out while pointing at his paper. The Kakashi he was with looked it over as it read 'Dear Naruto, your chakra control is horrible…no I'm serious it's really bad. An academy student has better chakra control then you. I know it is due to your little tenant but still…wow. So! We will be working on the chakra control exercise water walking!' Kakashi looked over the paper at the blonde ball of energy and pointed towards the lake. "Are you kidding me? This is bullshit! How come it seems like I need remedial work?" Naruto ranted.

"Well I could just make you go into the water. You remember **Sennen Goroshi **(Thousand years of pain) right Naruto?" the scarecrow ninja asked. Naruto blurred to the water's edge, a frightened look on his face. The Kakashi laughed evilly and walked towards the edge by Naruto. "So this exercise is just like tree walking as in you need to use chakra at different intervals to let yourself stick and unstick the surface so you can walk. This however is different." Naruto watched as his sensei calmly walked onto the surface as if walking on ground. The gentle waves made the jounin's body bob slightly up and down, but it seemed to Naruto that he didn't seem affected. "As you can see, like with tree climbing, I stick to the water's surface."

"Well sensei, it shouldn't be that hard right. Like you said, I only have about chunin level chakra so it won't take me that long to master this. Just like the tree climbing," Naruto said with a grin.

"Well uhh yeah that's the thing. I kind of lied about your chakra level," the Kakashi replied while scratching his head. Naruto looked at him strangely and was about to speak, but was cut off. "Naruto I'm actually surprised you were able to get tree climbing along with the others so well. If I told you this in front of the others, like Sasuke, then we might have had a problem. Naruto…you have more chakra then me already, maybe three times more, and that's why this exercise is going to be extremely hard for ya. Good luck controlling it!"

Silence filled the air. A lone crow flitted away, its call sounding suspiciously like _"Ahou! Ahou!_1_"_...

"…SHIT!"

_Day 1_

It was the first day after they got their notes on what to do, and already Sakura was in pain. She didn't know if she had the real Kakashi or not but she desperately wanted to kill the one that was telling her to do fifty more push-ups.

"Come now Sakura-chan, it's only been one day of the conditioning and you're already tired?" the Kakashi stated while walking around the pink haired genin who was currently trying not to pass out. "I told you before that we have about a week to train for the upcoming battle. You three spent two days already learning tree climbing."

"And shouldn't that be enough!" Sakura screamed. Her sensei only chuckled and ordered her to start running around the clearing when she was done. She could only cry silently in her head, actually she was crying in real life in despair as her inner self screamed out ways to torture a silver haired pervert. She had to wonder how her other teammates were doing.

As she thought that, we find the young prodigy, Uchiha Sasuke, sitting in a lotus position. If one were to look at him for his appearance, they would have thought he was the perfect example of calm. However in his mind this was going on through his head, 'This is stupid, this is stupid, this is stupid… THIS IS STUPID!' As his thoughts escalated to dangerous levels, a finger started to poke and prod poor Sasuke's forehead.

"You good yet? You good yet? How's it going? Huh? Huh? Huh?"

"SHUT THE HELL UP!" Sasuke screamed, jumping to his feet. Pulling out shuriken, his eyes roamed the area in a craze, searching for his victim. Not seeing anyone there he started to calm down. He closed his eyes and breathed slowly trying to block out all that was around him. That was until he felt more poking on his head.

Naruto heard a scream of rage echo through the forest as he went to step on the water again. "Hmm that was odd," he said. Shrugging Naruto channeled chakra into his feet and stepped slowly onto the lake. His foot stayed on top of the water and with that he placed his other foot on the surface. Immediately, once his full weight was on the top, his body shot off the surface and he was thrown through the air. "This is going to hurt…"

Naruto landed in heap on the ground with his arms and legs a tangled mess. He was so sick and tired of this stupid exercise, and he was starting to think that his, in his sensei's words, "remarkable chakra capacity" was nothing but trouble. "Maa, is Naruto-kun having trouble with his exercise?" Naruto turned to the voice and watched as the Kakashi he was with walk towards him. "You know, I wonder how long it will take you to be able to walk on water. Who knows how long I have to train you till it's time to fight Zabuza again. Or maybe you'll just fall into the water and drown. Oh the possibilities!"

"Fuck you sensei…"

_Day 2_

Sakura dodged another rain of kunai and cartwheeled onto the side of a tree sticking to it in the process. Her rest was cut short as she had to jump from tree side to tree side as deadly weapons shot towards where she would be standing. She flipped over and put herself flat to the ground, avoiding a shuriken, and then pushed herself off the ground as another flying piece of metal stuck right under her. Sweat dripped from her forehead as she ran faster to avoid the deadly projectiles of doom, not even noticing as she jumped over the meditating form of Sasuke.

Sasuke had spent all night trying to find the calm in his mind. With his eyes closed and his body relaxed, he could feel his mind slipping. His natural thinking tried to keep his mind focused on the things around him, but Sasuke could feel his grip on his surroundings slowly diminish. The sounds of Naruto splashing in the water to the side, Sakura's heavy breathing as she ran for her life, were starting to fade away. With the sounds now gone, Sasuke found himself in a state peace. Noting that he couldn't hear anything, Sasuke opened his eyes and found that he wasn't in the forest anymore. He gasped in shock and horror as his eyes took in where he was. He was home…only he saw it as he saw it those many years ago. In black and white… Hearing footsteps Sasuke turned around and saw a small figure approach him. It resembled a child of about five years old, only you could not distinguish any of its features. Nothing to tell if it was a boy or a girl, it was just a black image of a child with a white outline. It seemed to look up at Sasuke and said one word.

"_Hi!"_

Sasuke opened his eyes, gasping, garnering the attention of his teammates. Gathering himself he closed his eyes hoping to relax after that piece of drama.

Naruto stared at his two teammates from the shore of the lake. Sakura's progress was going amazing, and even Sasuke was doing well. He felt like he was lagging behind. Getting to his feet, Naruto put his hands in the ram seal and gathered more chakra towards his feet. Looking in concentration towards the lake, Naruto said, "I can do this. Just one more time and I know I can do this." Putting one foot on top of the lake, Naruto slowly started to walk forward. One step, two steps, three…Naruto would not close his eyes. He found that if he kept his eyes open and focused on what he was doing then he would not mess up his chakra as he would normally. A smile started to blossom on his face as he stared to reach the middle of the lake.

"Haha, I so have this dow-," the blonde ninja's foot sunk and his body tumbled into the river. Kakashi sighed as he watched his three students from the trees, lazily tossing weapons at his pink haired student. He wanted them to at least try and get the exercises done soon. They didn't have much time till Zabuza healed. At most five or four days, maybe…

Kakashi jumped down from the tree and yelled for them to stop training. Maybe, just maybe, he can motivate them enough to finish soon.

At the Tazuna household, things were normal…well as normal as they could be with four ninja in the house. Naruto and Sasuke ate their food like no tomorrow while Sakura did her best to lift the chopsticks. Kakashi sat in his chair reading his book while not caring what anybody else was doing. Tsunami, the daughter of old man Tazuna, fussed over the young ninjas, very happy to have the company. When Naruto and Sasuke lurched forward, throwing up the contents of their stomachs, Tazuna laughed loudly at their pain. The only one who seemed to be in a dark mood was the small boy at the end of the table.

"So sensei, do you think we are progressing that we will be able to beat those two?" Naruto asked.

Before Kakashi could answer though, the Inari suddenly spoke, "Forget it."

"Wha… what!" Naruto demanded, looking at the boy.

"You're just going to die," the kid declared.

"Inari!" Tsunami said clearly embarrassed

"There's no way you can win against Gatou," the boy declared with some finality.

"Oi shut up! I'll show you what a hero can really do," Naruto started.

"Naruto! Quit it!" Sakura yelled at the blonde, only for him to ignore her.

"I'm going to be Hokage! Where I'm from those are heroes, and that's what I'm going to be!" Naruto declared.

"Whatever. There is no such thing as a hero," Inari said standing up. "Leave before you die."

Naruto seemed to froth at the mouth as he became angrier, but his fury was placated as he heard Tsunami start to speak. And speak she did because when she was done, Naruto couldn't wait to get out of that house. He had training to do, and he didn't even turn when he heard Sakura yell for him to come back.

XxX

A lone figure entered a grassy clearing. Her silky dark hair brushed past her waist as she turned back and forth through the foliage. She hummed lightly to the song of the birds and the light rolling of waves from the nearby lake. As she smiled at a bird that landed on her shoulder, she noticed the flock of the little scavengers that seemed to be perched on a blonde log. Walking slowly over to what appeared to be a human figure; the girl was surprised to see the blonde ninja that gave her master a scare. The boy seemed to be sleeping and when the birds dispersed she could see the boy seemed to be shirtless. Fighting down a blush she shook her head and steeled herself as she reached down.

"Wake up. You'll catch a cold if you stay out here."

Naruto shook his head as be felt a light touch on his body. Looking up he noticed a girl maybe a year older than him looking intently as he lay on the ground. Yawning, Naruto looked up to see who woke him. His face took on a small blush as he looked at the girl that stood over him. She wore a pale pink kimono with a white wrap. Her beautiful black hair run down her shoulders and she had a caring smile on her face. Her skin was a milky perfection to the young boy's eyes. A giggle pierced through Naruto's thoughts and he blushed more from embarrassment.

"So nee-san, this enough herbs?" Naruto asked. Naruto learned that the girl's name was Haku and that she was getting herbs to heal someone from her family.

"Yes Naruto-kun that should be enough," Haku giggled. Naruto smiled and put the plants into the basket Haku was carrying and sat down. Haku looked at her blonde haired companion and asked, "so what are you doing out here?"

"Training!"

"Oh but you already look strong enough though," the black haired girl replied.

"I need to get stronger. I need to prove to his kid that there are heroes out there still," Naruto said with fire in his eyes.

Haku was taken a back for a second before smiling. Picking up the basket, Haku stood up and watched as the blonde boy grabbed his jacket. "Do you have anyone precious to you Naruto-kun?" Naruto raised his eyebrow at the girl's question and thought about it. After a moment the boy nodded. "That is good to hear. Did you know that if you have someone precious worth fighting for, then you will no doubt get stronger for them," Haku said smiling and started to walk away. Naruto smiled at the mysterious person and stood up. Walking towards Haku he tripped on a stray root and started to fall towards the unsuspecting guest.

"By the way just so you know, I'm a bo-," Haku started to say as the secret hunter nin of Zabuza turned around. The words were cut off as Naruto fell and took the upper half of Haku's kimono with him. The ploy of Haku being a boy died then and there as Naruto lay on the ground eyes wide as saucers and Haku stared down at what the blonde ninja was looking at.

"…boobs…"

"KYAAAAAAAAAA!" a blushing Haku covered her body while Naruto sputtered and cried out apologies. Ripping off his orange jacket, Naruto covered the almost crying girl with his coat. Haku mumbled a thanks and scurried away passing a confused Sasuke. The black haired boy could only stare in confusion as he came into the clearing. There in the middle of the woods was a blushing Naruto that was staring into space.

"Oi dobe, you ok?" Sasuke asked. The only response he got was Naruto muttering boobs over and over again causing the Uchiha to blush and drag the blonde haired boy back to the Tazuna homestead.

XxX

It was the third day of the team's individual and right now all of them have progressed amazingly in Kakashi's eyes. As of now Sakura was up against a tree trying to catch her breath, her eyes focusing in and out. Kakashi guessed he would give her some time before he sat them around for the unveiling. Sasuke was on the ground in the lotus position again only this time he seemed to be in a perfect meditative state.

In Sasuke's mind however there was a bit of turmoil going on. He was standing in his home again with it being the same black and white hue as it was back _then_. In front of him was the strange childlike figure sitting before him on a bench that was up against one of Sasuke's clan houses. Sighing to himself, the Uchiha sat down next to the weird unclassifiable figure.

"So… any chance you will tell me who you are?" Sasuke asked.

"_He he oh silly, you already know who I am."_

"Oh really?" Sasuke curved an eyebrow up. The child giggled to itself and seemed to nod.

"_I thought you would have recognized me,"_ it said as it looked up. With a shake of the Uchiha's head the figure grumbled a bit then seemed to pout before swinging its legs and jumping off the bench. _"How mean! It's not like I'm someone you don't know. In fact," _the child seemed to smile in an 'I know what you don't' kind of way. Walking away, Sasuke followed the child to a house that he started to recognize.

"Why are you taking me to my house?"

"_Hmm, well this is where you will get to remember me,"_

"And how is that going to work?" Sasuke received no answer but continued to follow the figure into what was his room. Walking around it, he became lost in the old memories that seemed to flood into his mind. That was when he noticed the child like figure standing by his dresser. Walking up to one of the drawers, he opened it only to fall back in shock. The child grabbed the item that caused so much fear and surprise in the Uchiha before placing it atop its head.

"You! Y-you can't be!" Sasuke sputtered as the item atop the child's head seemed to glow. There before the fallen boy's eyes the figure seemed to gain an appearance. Hair seemed to grow and form. It grew longer and longer till it reached the child's back. The face seemed to shape more and started to show features while the body slimmed and formed itself. A little girl of about five was now staring back at Sasuke, her coal colored eyes dancing with mirth while the blue hairband with a small bow glowed. Her clothes were the exact same as Sasuke's only smaller and she lacked the white arm bands that were on the aghast Uchiha's arms.

"Why…why are you here. What could you possibly do being here," Sasuke muttered as he looked down at the ground, eyes shut tight and fists closed shut. "WHAT DO YOU WANT?" Sasuke screamed at the girl.

The girl could only smile sadly as she walked forward to place a small hand against Sasuke's cheek. _"They need to know,"_ she whispered. Sasuke's eyes widened in shock at what the girl said. _"You know that sensei knows…isn't it time to let go?"_

"No… she told me I needed to stay. She said that if it got out that I would be in trouble with them," Sasuke whispered.

"_They are gone!"_ the girl snapped. _"What can they do now? I have been trapped watching as you grow colder and more like, like HIM,"_ the girl lifted Sasuke's face to hers staring fiercely into his eyes. _"We will no longer lie. When the time comes __**it**__ will break. Prepare yourself for what needs to happen."_ With that the girl walked backwards as Sasuke could only nod his head blankly. _"You have found me, and soon you will have found some semblance of peace. We will be in contact. After all I need to keep an on you."_

Sasuke opened his eyes slowly as he tried to comprehend what just happened. Walking next to Sakura he leaned against the tree while the pink haired girl was too exhausted to notice her crush next to her. Kakashi noticed this and smiled sadly. More things were going to change and he only hoped everyone could handle the change. Speaking of change, the silver haired manlooked towards the small lake as the blonde ninja seemed to run across the water. He asked the boy what happened to his coat the other day but the boy only blushed and said he was going to eat and run. He somehow had a spare jacket that was exactly the same (which frightened the silver haired ninja a little) and was now clothed and on the water. He now saw why he wanted to leave. His progress was…astounding. The boy's chakra reserves were enormous and for Naruto to have been able to grasp water walking in three days was amazing. The boy could make hundreds of clones and the chakra reserves to do that is astounding, possibly Kage level, but the drawback to levels like that is extremely poor chakra control. That's why being Hokage was no joke.

Naruto walked calmly over the water's surface making sure to regulate his chakra whenever he felt the water shift. Taking a few hesitant jumps, Naruto was delighted to see that he didn't fall. The boy smiled to himself then jogged over to the bank of the lake. Walking over to the tree where his teammates were, Naruto pulled out the orange book that wouldn't show him anything in the beginning. "So you think we are ready to see what our books are supposed to say," asked the blonde ninja.

"I think so. We will have to ask sensei," Sakura said between breathes. Sasuke nodded while pulling out his own orange book. As Sakura pulled out hers all three ninja noticed the silver haired jounin land in front of them.

"Well I think you all deserve to see what's in the book now ne?" team 7 nodded their heads at Kakashi's words. The jounin shrugged his shoulders before making a hand sign and muttering 'Kai'. The three genin looked at their books and watched as the covers of each book shimmered, each one showing a different title.

"Your Brain & You: for Dummies. What?"

"So you want to be a pyromaniac: For Dummies?"

"Get Fast because your _Slow_: For Dummies… OI! Why is slow written like that! Does this book think I'm stupid?" Naruto yelled at Kakashi while Sakura and Sasuke flipped through the pages of their own books, a little peeved at the Dummies part.

"Naruto these books are training material I specifically bought after our little fight for the bell test and is made for your individual strengths." Naruto raised his eyebrow at that statement and Kakashi sighed before opening the boy's book and showing him the first chapter. "Your book will help you work on speed and form to help with taijutsu. It also gives a few taijutsu attacks. Sasuke's is…well that is a bit self-explanatory. It focuses on fire based moves for ninjutsu, while Sakura's is on genjutsu."

The ninja looked at their books in wonder before diving into the material. It was later into the night when Kakashi brought them home. With a quick meal from Tsunami's amazing cooking and the oddly reserved Inari watching the ninja eat, Team 7 retired to bed. Well most of the ninja went to bed while Naruto stayed up reading as much as he could before passing out, the book draped across his chest.

XxX

"Thanks for watching Naruto Tsunami," Kakashi said.

"Oh it's no trouble! I found the poor boy snoring away with a book over him. The poor thing must have read himself to sleep," Tsunami replied giggling at the young boy's antics.

Kakashi smiled at that before heading off with the rest of his team towards the bridge. Tsunami watched them go with a smile before heading back inside to wash dishes. "Inari!" she called. "What do you want for lunch?" Receiving a reply of fish, she chuckled before getting the lunch ready. She did not notice as two grungy looking samurai walk up to her door. She was surprised however when they sliced then kicked her door open.

"Is this the lady Gato wants?" A samurai with tattoos asked to his partner.

"Yes it seems so. Hurry grab her before she causes a fuss," the one wearing a skull cap replied. Grabbing the young woman, the two samurai tied her up as she screamed in protest. She only prayed that her son was outside so they wouldn't get her.

"Mom? What's that noise?" Inari asked as he came through the back door. He was surprised to see two men tying up his mother. "Hey what are you doing to my mom?" Inari screamed out.

"Get lost kid before we cut you," Inari backed away before remembering what Naruto yelled at him and what Kakashi said to him after Naruto left. With a determined face he grabbed a nearby pole and rushed forward yelling at the two men. "Looks like we get to use our swords for some fun, huh?" the two swordsmen ran forward ignoring the cries of Tsunami whiles the unleashed their swords on…a log?

"Wow look at that? You know you didn't have to hurt the log so much. The log did nothing to you," Naruto said as he lowered the shaking form of Inari. "Good job Inari. You're a true hero ya know that."

"Hey who do you think you are?" the samurai rushed forward while Naruto scoffed and tossed two shuriken at the men. They smirked as the blocked the weapons but they didn't expect the shuriken to poof into smoke, or the two blows to the head from the blonde's clones. Naruto finished the two off by rolling forward and placing his hands on the floor. Springing himself up, Naruto shot out his legs and split them apart so that he caught both the men on their chins with his rising heels.

"Well the book says that that move is mostly used on a single opponent, but hey when life gives you lemons, split them," Naruto grinned. "You did good Inari. You're a hero for saving your mom, but now I have to go help out my own team!" And with that Naruto raced out the door leaving the two shocked people.

When Naruto got to the bridge he was surprised to find it in a deep mist making it hard for him to spot his teammates. Looking around he noticed Sasuke in what looked to be dome of mirrors. He watched as Sakura threw kunai trying to free Sasuke but then the person in the mirror knocked the two kunai away, getting out of the mirror a bit. This was his chance grabbing a few shuriken; he lobbed them at the masked person knocking them out of their mirror.

Jumping forward, Naruto rushed into the mirrors to help Sasuke. "Yo!" Naruto greeted. Sasuke looked at the blonde haired boy before checking to see if he was real by poking Naruto. Nodding, Sasuke reeled back and smack Naruto across the head. "Ow, what the hell!"

"What are you doing in here idiot?" Sasuke yelled out.

"I was trying to help your sorry ass," Naruto yelled back.

"Yeah well now guess what? Now we are both trapped in here. What did you plan after that huh?"

Naruto blinked a few times and with a surprised 'oh' both boys were peppered with senbon. "It is sad that you are now in my prison. Now you will never escape," the ninja said sadly. And with that the fight was on. Naruto tried his best to throw out clones so he could get cover to charge his **Reigan** but whenever he tried, the hunter nin would always interrupt him while destroying all of the clones. Sasuke was trying to dodge the needles while weaving through the orange clones using them as cover. Things were not going well…

Kakashi looked in apprehension at the ice prison that the hunter formed. He could tell Naruto was in there as well but he couldn't tell if that was good or bad. Focusing on his own fight again. Kakashi focused his Sharingan trying to see where Zabuza was but to no avail. The mist was too thick so he had to just rely on his ninja senses. Ducking under a swing from the huge buster sword, Kakashi slipped between Zabuza's legs and tried to slice the other man's back. His attack was stopped when the missing nin spun around and brought his sword to shield himself. Narrowing his eyes, Kakashi used a quick **Sunshin **(Body Flicker) to try and get behind Zabuza again. This time his round house went through and his kick sent the other ninja flying forward back into the mist.

Zabuza shook himself from the kick and brought his sword up to defend himself. As the Konoha ninja came forward, Zabuza threw his sword out like he did when he first met these people. The sword sang true as it whistled towards Kakashi, and the man widened his eyes and ducked barely getting under the blade as it passed and lodged itself into the concrete next to him. Zabuza was at his sword in a burst of speed and went to kick Kakashi away. This was a battle of skills between the two. No fancy tricks, no flashy jutsu, just pure fighting skills. Both knew that if things continued the way they were going then they would be at a stalemate until someone slipped up and from the looks of things, both of them wouldn't anytime soon. The idea of stepping things up went across both the veteran ninja's minds as the two of them exchanged blows once again. Kakashi blurred through hand seals as he kicked Zabuza across the bridge. "**Suiton: Suiryuudan no jutsu**!" (Water style: Water dragon bullet technique) a massive amount of water gathered from the side of the bridge before forming into the form of a vicious dragon with glowing red eyes. It roared loudly before soaring through the air towards the air borne missing nin. Zabuza widened his eyes as the water jutsu flew towards him and tries to right himself as he flew through the air. He only hoped his tool was doing better than him.

Haku jumped from mirror to mirror throwing as much needles as she could to stop the two boys in front of her from escaping the Makyou Hoshou she created. She couldn't keep this up for long though because her bloodline was taking up a lot of chakra and it seemed like the black haired boy was dodging almost all of her needles. That was when she saw it, the black coal like eyes of the ninja in front of her was no longer just black... They were red. "Sharingan!"

Sasuke's eyes widened in surprise when the foreign ninja that was attacking them exclaimed the name of his bloodline. He should have noticed that the needles that were flying towards them seemed slower. _"Well now that you have the Sharingan, do you think you can win?" _Sasuke heard the voice but did not pay notice to it at that moment. He had needles flying at him at full speed so focus was kind of needed. Naruto watched in awe as his teammate seemed to dodge more needles then before while he still had trouble with dodging himself. The two ninja started to gain the upper hand now that Sasuke could dodge and deflect more senbon and Naruto was able to start creating more clones that were able to score glancing blows on the masked nin. But when they started to believe that they could win the fight Haku decided to blur faster from mirror to mirror raining needles upon the poor boys.

"Gragh!" Naruto screamed out in pain and fell to his knees.

"I'm sorry but I need to end this now. I must become the tool my master needs from me," with that said Haku threw another wave of senbon towards the downed Naruto. Sasuke reacted and before the now Sharingan wielder knew what happened, he fell to the ground as blood leaked from the puncture wounds.

"What have you done? Why did you jump in the way you idiot?" Naruto yelled out as he staggered forward. Unknown to Naruto, the voice in Sasuke's head was screaming the exact same thing.

"I don't know. My body just moved by itself," Sasuke said in between coughs. Naruto dropped down to his knees to try to get his teammate in a position so he wouldn't bleed to death all over the ground. "Naruto," Sasuke coughed out, blood seeping out at each breathe.

"What you teme?" Naruto said trying to hold back his tears.

"I wanted to avenge my clan… I wanted to know why he did it…" Sasuke murmured. "Itachi… he was the man I needed to kill. He was the one who I needed to confront." As Sasuke was telling Naruto the full ambition and who it was about, the blonde haired boy noticed that Sasuke's body was starting to glow. "He…he killed them all. But he was supposed to protect me. He was supposed to protect us. Father told us that he was my guardian, but why did he murder us all?" Sasuke coughed again as blood splattered onto the ground.

"_This wasn't supposed to be the way __**it**__ broke. This wasn't what I wanted for us!"_ the voice sounded in Sasuke's head.

Naruto couldn't truly understand what Sasuke was rambling about because he was too shocked at what was slowly happening to Sasuke himself. His body started change before the blonde boy's very eyes and he watched in complete awe. Sasuke's hair grew longer and the spikes in the back started grow down till it reached his back. Sasuke's body seemed to almost shrink a bit and his body seemed to grow curvier, almost like… no it couldn't be. What really sent Naruto into shock was the face he knew, the face he went to school with all these years, started to distort and shape itself till it became rounder and feminine. "Naruto… please continue my dream. Find Itachi and ask him why he abandoned me, why he abandoned his little sister, why did he abandon his Suki-chan."

"Sasuke!... You?" Naruto could only stare in shock as the body he held in his arms, his first friend and rival, THE Uchiha Sasuke, became a girl.

"My/_Our_ na_me_ is... Uchiha Suki, dobe/_fool_." Suki whispered while her inner voice drawled along with her, not that anyone could hear her voice. "I guess you're going to have to tell everyone. Great now I have to die with your stupid expression in my mind," Naruto heard Sasuke, no _SUKI,_ chuckle out. And with that final barb, Uzumaki Naruto was left speechless for the first time in his life as he felt the girl in his arm fall limp.

"Is this the first time you have seen a friend die?"

'Words, words where were those words coming from?' Naruto thought his eyes starting to grow faint.

"I'm sorry you had to see that, but that is the life of a ninja and for Zabuza-sama I will do my best."

'There that voice goes again. Wait it was _him_! That masked ninja who did this!' Naruto's hands stared to shake.

"You should be honored. He was able to jump that fast in your-,"

"S**hu**t **u**p!" Haku recoiled in shock at the animalistic growl.

"**Y**o**u... I**'m **go**nn**a k**i**l**l** YOU!**" Naruto screamed out. Haku's head leaned back even through her mirror as an explosion of crimson chakra blasted from the blonde haired boy. The ice prison glowed red as chakra swirled around Naruto's body. With his hands like claws, fangs bared, and red eyes staring forward the crazed Naruto roared with all his fury prepared for a new fight. **"GRAAAGHHH!"**

"Fuck my life…"

**Ok wow this sure took a long time and yeah I made it super extra long because I've been away for so long. So here comes the conclusion to the Wave Arc and gasp Sasuke's a girl! Yes I know I making Sasuke a girl may get me some or a lot of flames but sorry guys but I have barely seen ANY female Sasuke fics but numerous female Naruto fics. I guess I just got tired of the endlessness. But guys don't worry it's not like Naruto and Suki will suddenly go Oh my god you're a girl I LOVE YOU! Haha give me a little more credit. My main focus is on the story and I just want to build up everything as it goes. Just give the idea a chance k. But anyways this is my only fic that is fem Sasuke so just try to bear with it cause it keeps the story that I had outlined in my head going. **

**Ahou means basically fool so yeah you see this a lot ^^**

**Oh and for being so patient with me I want to give you all a present!**

_**Coming soon…**_

**Breaker of Truth Episode 3: Imagination's First Step**

"_You didn't let me Kawarimi?" Naruto shrugged his shoulders while rubbing his right hand._

"_Come on Jii-san you know I'm ready for a real mission,"_

_Naruto ducked low as the claw sliced inches above his face before back flipping and slamming his toe into his attacker's chin._

"_Naruto get out of here! You don't know what you are up against!"_

_Naruto's body flew towards the sword wielding ninja, Sasuke's fire balls in front of him swinging in circles._

_The clones around Naruto each took out an assortment of weapons copying their master. "Let's get wild."_

"_Boy you die today!"_

"_Kakashi senseiiiii!" Naruto swiped his right hand at the arm holding the globe of water. Just as he touched the missing nin's arm, the world slowed and the water globe shattered with a loud PING._

**Mundus Specialis Ninja no Mahou**

"_Clones! What is this?" Eva saw the five Narutos rush forward. Already she could feel the energy that was coursing through him spring up as if it was being suppressed but suddenly released._

"_**Gai Mon Chou Chuu!" **__Negi sprang forward with a shining right elbow thrust._

"_What kind of competition are you talking about Ojii-san?"_

_Naruto watched as the girl with the maid costume and cat ears and tail rushed forward and seemed to slice throughthe girl he first fought. "…What kind of effed up battle is this?"_

_Kaede slowly rose up from the ground, blood seeping from the wounds she got from Kul-Nel's smash into the ground. _

"_Aye, I guess it's my defeat you win de goz-,"_

"_I think it is my turn miss ninja-san," Naruto blurred in front of Kaede's form._

"_Young boy you surprise me greatly. For that I commend you!" Kul-Nel fired off ball of condensced gravitation magic at the approaching Naruto and his clones._

"_I'm not done yet! Eat this __**RASENAN!"**_

_Naruto rose slowly from the ground, "Everyone tells me I'm too weak but I'll show you. I'll show them all! __**ADEAT!"**_

**And finally my readers and reviewers the time has come. I bring you two previews of two stories that I am hoping to get out. A little note on these two. The first one is titled Shine On. This is a story that I thought of even before Behold the Mimic. I keep remembering it and forgetting it but I finally decided to write it down. This fic was inspired by countless hours of playing GundamVsGundam with my friends, Naruto, and a fic that I read long long ago. Don't know if it's still out there or who the author was but if you read this, this one is thanks to you. And the second one, well I'll let it explain itself.**

_**Shine On**_

_Jumping from tree branch to tree branch I focused all my power on getting away._

"_Why… Please tell me the reason why they hate me!" I was confused, angry, and so many things. I didn't care about anything around me, not even the fact that Iruka sensei was yelling at Mizuki to stop._

_The ground beneath felt cold as Iruka looked down at me, tears in his eyes. The words he spoke were muted yet I could still understand him._

_I relished in the fact that my flying knee sent him flying so far back but I wasn't done yet._

"_Show me what you got Kyuubi!"_

"_You, you Mizuki are screwed because… This hand of mine glows with an awesome power. Its burning grip tells me to defeat you," I held my right hand out as the enormous amount of chakra focused onto it and started to heat up just as the scroll said. "Are you ready? Here I come!" I don't know where the extra burst of speed came from but I went with it and before I knew it my right hand, white hot with chakra and power was against Mizuki as I screamed. "__**SHINING FINGER!**__"_

_I couldn't keep this up! I felt my control on the move starting to ebb away, but with a grunt of effort I sent a final push of chakra. This ended the move and with that push the chakra in my shining white hand exploded out. But what surprised Mizuki, and me for that matter, was the fiery cloud that blossomed forth, shining from the exploded chakra. The burst of fire sent Mizuki's body shooting backward, while I stood there the shining ball of fire dissipating before me._

"_What a fitting name…"_

_**Carpe Diem**_

_I nagged Kakashi to teach me that __**Chidori**__ and as we left the roof I hounded him down. He sighed and left me with one final tip but told me don't get my hopes up._

"_A move even better than __**Chidori**__? Hell yeah I'm in Ero senin!" Who would have thought the perverted Jiraiya knew a move as powerful as Kakashi sensei's._

_**Rasengan**__? So that's what it's called hmmm and to think that old grandma wouldn't let me do it. I could see why now. That grove in the earth would have hurt like hell if it hit ya. Not necessarily as powerful as Ero senin's but I'm getting there._

"_Kabuto you prick! How could you betray Konoha!" I was beyond pissed. I hated traitors and this guy seemed to piss me off even more with that smirk of his._

"_Give up Naruto-kun. You can't beat me with that kind of sweeping motion." I growled and righted myself up from my dive. _

"_Oi baa-chani don't know if this works to get that necklace but still watch me." Two of my clones burst from the ground and stabbed Kabuto in the palms of his and stomped on his feet to keep him steady. I didn't have a lot of time so I worked fast. Three hand seals blurred through before I gripped my downward facing left hand with my right hand, but before that stance was complete I switched and had my left hand gripping my upward facing right hand. The clone I made to my right nodded to me and stood at ready._

_Damnit this move wasn't complete but it would have to do. I could feel the chakra surrounding my hand become stronger while the chakra my clone was swirling complete. This move was in no way I smart idea but hell if I would try. The two moves weren't meshing together but seemed to stack upon one another, but my time was short because even now the jutsus wanted to separate. My jutus weren't as strong as the people who taught me but if putting them together made two halves a whole, well God of Luck help me._

"_What the hell is THAT?"_

"…_Impossible"_

"_You tell me I'm the failure, well screw you cause I'll show you what a failure can really do!" My body was propelled forward by the pseudo mix jutsu and as I reached Kabuto I could see the fear and awe in his eyes. This was going to rock. _

"_**RASENDORI!**__"_

"_See baa-chan. Sometimes you just got to seize the day and work with what life gives ya."_

**Yes everybody! These two fics will be Naruto POV and I really don't know what to truly start first so I was hoping to get some people to tell me which one they would like to see first come out. I won't explain too much on those two new ones but a little thing is Shine On is that it will be a bit different to what people will expect, and Carpe Diem, well I've never seen this and hey I'm all about giving some breathe of fresh air. So anyways here is the new episode of Behold the Mimic, sorry it's so late and here are some previews of the up and coming! Thanks to all you peoples and hopes you like it!**


	6. Arc End: Welcome to the Black Exam

Edited 6/21/11. (Yo I'm back with one more edit. Just to let you all know all my chapters go through Tigee86 once they are edited to get his ok)

Chapter 6: Arc's End: Welcome to the Black Exam

**Nanashi: Happy New Year people! I hope everyone had a great New Year and Holiday! I am happy to say that this story is going quite well. I already have it planned out kinda like story board style. Haha weird huh but hey it must be done to get the ball rolling. All other fics are still being worked on. Kohuki I hope you ok bro! Anyways let's go!**

Intro Music Turn ON: STFU by Girugamesh

Cover: Naruto, Suki, and Sakura standing in front a number of people. The people behind Team 7 are shadowed but each have a defining feature like pineapple shaped hair or a dog on their head. Suki is smirking crossing her arms staring forward; Sakura has a kunai in her mouth and is winking forward while Naruto is giving the peace sign while fanning out some shuriken forward.

Disclaimer: Own not Naruto or any other references to anything else.

The ice prison glowed red as chakra swirled around Naruto's body. With his hands like claws, fangs bared, and red eyes staring forward the crazed Naruto roared with all his fury prepared for a new fight. "**GRAAAGHHH**!"

"Fuck my life…"

* * *

Naruto stared into the unseen face of his attacker while covering the body of Suki protectively. The crimson chakra swirled about him menacingly as it seemed to twirl in a strange double helix form rising well above the blonde boy's head. Haku's fear grew even more when she saw the crimson chakra form a fox head before roaring and the chakra dissipating.

Naruto raised his head upwards to where Haku was and suddenly his form blurred out of sight. Haku looked around wildly before watching the rising form of the feral boy fly towards her. Confident in the strength of the ice, Haku waited for Naruto to bounce off the mirror. The ice wielding ninja's eyes widened in surprise as the boy's fist started to crack the mirror and her form flew out of it before Naruto smashed completely through. Haku sprang into another mirror and her image reflected all around Naruto.

"I cannot take any more chances. Forgive me." Each image of Haku readied their senbon before unleashing a wave of needles at the crouching boy. Naruto watched as the needles came closer but did nothing to stop them. As the weapons pierced into him, Naruto hunched over before throwing out his arms and roaring. A pulse of chakra sprang out and the senbon were thrown from Naruto's form. Haku started going for another mirror but was surprised when Naruto sped to follow her. Spinning around Haku threw another torrent of weapons but was frightened beyond belief when the boy roared again sending a wave of chakra-laced sound and air barreling into the weapons, rendering them useless. As Naruto neared the girl, he swiped with his claws trying to open her neck for the world to see. Luckily, Haku made it into a mirror before that happened and watched Naruto land on the ground. Spotting a mirror above the blonde she started rush to that one.

"**GRAGHHH**!" Naruto roared again catching the attention of Haku and suddenly the boy did something that made her blood run cold. Naruto, while watching the girl fly to the mirror, raised his left arm before throwing it out. When the arm reached the apex of its swing a cloud of smoke obscured it from view for just a moment and suddenly the boy's arm stretched forward. The clawed hand rose as the arm stretched upwards and grasped the surprised girl's neck. With an animalistic snarl Naruto retracted the rubber-like arm, pulling Haku closer while red chakra swirled into Naruto's free arm. When Haku was right in front of Naruto he gave one last growl before slamming the crimson chakra-infused fist right into Haku's face.

Haku flew through a mirror as if it was tissue paper and rolled on the ground before coming to a stop outside of the ice dome. Struggling to stand up she watched in awe as her mirrors shattered and collapsed around the boy like falling snow while smoke drifted from the once again normal arm. Standing upright she waited for her death when she saw Naruto rush to her, his claws ready to pierce through her. 'Forgive me Zabuza-sama. He is too strong for me.' the mask upon her face cracked and fell away starting to show her face to the world. When the last shard of the mask fell Naruto's hand was inches from stabbing into the face it had covered.

"You... I know you. Why? Why did you do it?" Naruto rasped out, the claws that were about to sink into Haku receding.

"I am but a tool for Zabuza. Without him I am nothing. He saved me from loneliness." Haku replied.

"But he's just using you!"

"That does not matter to me. If he asks it then I will do it, even if it is to kill. But killing is what we as ninja must do, even if it is for avenging a fallen comrade." Haku paused to look over Naruto's shoulder. "She gave her life to save you. Do you feel nothing after I have killed her?" Naruto closed his eyes tight till they hurt. With a loud yell he lashed out and punched Haku. Spitting out some blood she turned her head back to Naruto. "What happened to that anger you had before? You won't be able to kill me like that."

"I don't want to kill you! But you, you killed Sasuke, no Suki…I don't know what to think! I don't believe my life should be deemed as someone's tool. I am not something to be used then thrown away like an object!" Naruto screamed out. His hands were clenched as he stared at the ground in anger. He wanted to be a shinobi for as long as he could remember. But did becoming a ninja mean that he was just someone else's blind tool? Naruto couldn't accept that.

"Naruto…" Haku said cutting Naruto off from his thoughts "I can no longer serve Zabuza like this. I am but a broken tool so I ask you, please kill me." Haku opened her arms wide pleading for the boy in front of her to end her. "My life has been nothing but sorrow till I met my master..."

* * *

Kakashi jumped away from another sword strike from the mist that would have most definitely taken his arm off. 'It seems that that chakra is gone. I hope Naruto is ok. I need to end this quickly.' Swinging his leg around, Kakashi kicked Zabuza across the floor giving the Sharingan wielder some breathing room. "Forgive me Zabuza but I believe the time for messing around is over. I need to get back to my students." Kakashi said while pulling out a scroll from one of the pouches on his vest. Running his thumb over a wound from the swordsman's weapon, Kakashi swiped the bloody thumb over the scroll and rolling it up flew through a few handsigns. "Kuchiyose: Doton: Tsuiga no jutsu!" Kakashi slammed his hands and scroll to the ground where an array of seals burst out around the scroll.

"Foolish, Kakashi, what kind of attack could you possibly do if you can't see me?" Zabuza said from the mist.

"Who says that I need to see you..." Suddenly, around Zabuza dogs burst from the ground and gripped onto his appendages restricting him completely. "Be thankful Zabuza. You get to see my one original jutsu." A chorus of chirping filled the air as the mist slowly drifted away.

* * *

"Your life was hard..." Naruto's words seemed to state the obvious but it still was nice to hear the boy's sincere voice say it. Haku was just happy he listened to her tale before she was ready to leave the living world.

"Everybody has problems Naruto-kun. Some are just able to deal with them better than others. I don't know if my way was the best choice but I stuck with it." Haku replied.

"I know everyone has issues. You don't have to tell ME that. But to me, I always believed that if you can persevere through the bullshit that life can throw at you then someday you'll gain something important worth all of that trouble." Haku chuckled at that. "You know, we could have been friends if we met in different circumstances."

"Yes. Yes we could have." and with that Haku watched as Naruto grabbed a kunai from his weapon holster and ran towards her. 'You will be a fine man someday Naruto.' As Naruto neared closer the mist started to lift allowing him to see his surroundings better. Haku seemed clearer but not only that he was able to make out the forms of Kakashi and Zabuza a few yards away. He was yanked from his observations when he felt Haku grab his arm and knock it away making him throw away his weapon.

"I'm sorry Naruto. It looks like I can't just die here." Haku suddenly blurred away. Naruto watched in surprise as Haku's form sped towards where he saw his sensei and Zabuza, finally noticing the situation that the swordsman was in. Haku was going to sacrifice herself.

"Wait Haku! Stop!" Naruto screamed out, reaching for where the girl was no doubt heading. His cries were for naught as he knew there was nothing he could do and that is when his emotions started to grow into turmoil.

The world around Naruto slowed down. He could see Haku running towards her trapped master. He could see the sparks coming off of his sensei's hand as chakra covered it in a cold blue fury. He knew when the three were to meet. He knew how long it would take till the meeting was to come. He could see it, but it wasn't because of a new power. It was not because he gained a new ability, a sudden bloodline, or the Kyuubi helping him. No, Naruto knew all this for one sole reason. His brain gave him this knowledge knowing he could do nothing but watch. Even now as he reached out towards them screaming for Haku to stop, his mind gave the poor boy a sick but oddly accurate countdown till his sensei reached Zabuza and Haku intervened. As Naruto yelled out he unconsciously started sending chakra towards his outstretched arm and that is when the count started.

_5 seconds..._

The chakra started to gather at an immense rate into Naruto's arm.

_4 seconds..._

Haku was almost to her master, ready to die to protect the man who saved her.

_3 seconds... _

Zabuza watched as his opponent came closer, his muscles relaxing as he resigned himself to his fate.

_2 seconds..._

Kakashi held his hand high, ready to plunge the Raikiri into the man before him.

_1 second..._

Naruto's arm started to hurt and burn. The chakra output so great it caused a pale blue glow.

_0 seconds..._

The pain was too great. The energy needed to be released. It was too much pain...too much...too much...

"STOPPPP!"

The cry echoed across the bridge for all to hear. A resounding boom followed the yell, causing Kakashi to stop his advance and Haku to stop parallel to silver haired man. Both were only a few feet from Zabuza, Kakashi in front ready to pierce with his jutsu and Haku to side ready to jump in front of Zabuza. Suddenly an image came from the dissipating mist that caused the three ninja to reel back, in Zabuza's case as far back as he could, for a ball of chakra almost as big as a man came careening down the line where no doubt all three of them would have intersected. The chakra ball zoomed by paving a nice grove in the cement before flying off to the side of the bridge and slowly dispersing.

"What the hell?" Kakashi looked back where the source of the chakra had come from. His question was answered when he saw Naruto come stumbling out from the shroud. The entire upper right part of his jacket looked to be burned off, though oddly his skin looked fine enough. When Naruto reached his sensei he looked up into his teacher's mismatched eyes, a look of complete despair on his face.

"Please sensei. No more death. No more killing. Suki is gone already, why must we add more blood?" Naruto's words shocked Kakashi and he looked to where his now second female student lay.

"Naruto what happened? Why is Sasuke now Su-" Kakashi was cut off as he heard clapping and spun around to see the source of the trouble in wave. Gatou stood at the end of the bridge surrounded by mercenaries, his hands clapping in a condescending manner.

"Well, well. Looks like the fabled demon of the mist isn't as all mighty as I thought." Gatou said with a malevolent sneer on his face.

"Gatou. What is the meaning of this?" Zabuza growled out, the ninken now dispersing after Kakashi released both of his jutsu.

"Well I was hoping that you ninja would go ahead and kill each other thus giving me the chance to keep all that money I was going to pay you. Plus, I could get to that town that those ninja wanted to protect!" Gatou started laughing. "It was the perfect win-win for me!" The greedy little man spotted Haku off to the side, her body starting to show the strain it was in. Gatou smirked evilly. "Well if it isn't the bitch that busted my arm. I think a little present is in order." Picking up a small piece of concrete, the little man used all his strength to throw it at the tired girl.

Haku watched the piece of rock fly lazily towards her knowing she could do nothing about it. The only reprieve she found was that a throw from that weak little man probably wouldn't knock her out. She closed her eyes waiting for the pain when she heard a dull 'thunk'. Opening her eyes she was shocked to find Naruto standing in front of her, the bare arm of his in front of her face. The rock fell to the ground with a clatter and Naruto looked behind him to see Haku staring at him in shock. "Heh, protecting a precious person makes one strong right? I think I'll make that my purpose."

As the words left Naruto's lips his arm suddenly exploded in a fountain of blood. Small rips and cuts appeared all over his arm, the rock being the catalyst for the blood now spraying all over Haku's face like red fireworks. Kakashi was next to his student in an instant, grasping him before he could hit the ground. "Naruto! Naruto speak to me!"

"Look at that boys. I'm stronger than I thought!"

"Yeah, boss is awesome!"

"Not only rich but powerful, that's Gatou!"

Kakashi held Naruto close not caring as blood stained his clothes. "Kakashi-sensei."

"Yes Naruto?"

"I did a good job right?" Naruto asked as consciousness started to fade from him.

"Yes. Yes you did Naruto. Now sleep, you deserve it." Kakashi laid the boy down slowly making sure to raise his bleeding arm up so he could wrap it in some medical tape from his pouch. Once he made sure his unconscious student was taken care of he slowly stood up keeping his head down. The man's eyes were shadowed by his silver hair, a testament to how angry he must be considering that the hair was up most of the time. "Zabuza?"

Said man grunted in response, already feeling the killing intent starting to flow from the Sharingan wielder. Then again he would probably be just as upset if someone was laughing at the pain of his own student.

"You will watch over my student. You will make sure no harm befalls him. You will stay after so that we may discuss things. If said requests are not met I will do to you what I am about to do to these men." Kakashi whispered. Zabuza raised his nonexistent eyebrows in question but conceded in the end.

"Whatever, my arms hurt from those dogs of yours." Zabuza stated as he kneeled down next to Naruto plunging his sword behind him. Leaning against the massive blade he watched as Kakashi stepped forward towards the crowd. From the amount of chakra leaking out of the silver haired man, the swordsman believed this would be entertaining to watch. Haku slowly limped towards where her master and Naruto lay hoping to make sure the blonde haired boy was ok. After a quick diagnostic, she concluded he would be alright. With a sigh of relief she settled down next to the boy as exhaustion took over her body.

* * *

Kakashi walked forward slowly, both of his eyes shaded with his hair hiding his unbridled fury. He would enjoy doing this. As he heard the small insect of a man belittle him, telling him that not even he could stand up to that many men, that was when he raised his head. The man's mismatched eyes bore into Gatou with an eruption of anger causing said man to flinch away. With that, the greedy little man raised his voice ordering his mercenaries to attack. Raising his arms Kakashi looked to be calmly holding both above his head in a surrender, causing the mercenaries to laugh in glee. Suddenly both hands burst into a chorus of chirping as chakra surrounded both hands in a mass of lightning chakra. Taking that as a signal to fight the horde of pathetic swordsman and rogues rushed at him. In an instant, Kakashi flickered out of their vision. A mess of screams was heard the next second.

Zabuza watched in awe at what was happening, even going so far to stand up and use his sword as a sort of step ladder to see above the mercenaries. What he saw was amazing. Apparently line after line of blue crackling lightning appeared, cris-crossing to and fro amongst the men. Where ever the line appeared a spray of blood would follow. He watched until the line crossed so much that it almost resembled a pattern. The streaks of lightning stopped quickly as many of the mercenaries were cut down leaving a very big gap straight towards Gatou. What happened once that trail to the man was formed took the Kiri swordsman's breathe away.

Gatou watched in fear as his men died in front of him until a pathway was cut, allowing him to see Zabuza. Suddenly Kakashi appeared in front of him, both hands crackling in glory, and plunged his left hand into Gatou's shoulder. The man cried out, but Kakashi made sure to not hit a vital spot, no his final move would make his justice all the sweeter. "You, Gatou, have broken one of the greatest rules that my sensei had taught to me. Never, EVER, harm my students." Kakashi whispered as he lifted the man high into the air with the hand plunged into him. "Your punishment…Death."

"Wait! I can pay you whatever you want! I'll give you anything I have just don't kill me!" Gatou pleaded.

Kakashi lowered his head and Gatou, through the pain started to feel hope. That is until the ninja before him raised his head showing the spinning Sharingan. "Now you die." And with that said Kakashi plunged his right hand into Gatou's other shoulder. Gatou screamed in agony but his screams only escalated as Kakashi dragged his hands towards each other in Gatou's body, easily slicing through his insides. When his hands were close together near the middle of Gatou's chest, Kakashi clasped them together letting the two chakra encased hands join. Lightning arced out and around the small man's body as it started to glow. Suddenly the man that tried to destroy Wave country exploded as a lightning bolt shot out and his blood showered around Kakashi and the men around him.

The silver haired man was left standing there with his arms in the air and hands clasped, chakra starting to fade away. "Raikiri Ranmyaku…" Kakashi whispered slowly turning around. A crossbow bolt flew out of the air and Kakashi smiled. It seems Inari had grown up a bit.

* * *

Naruto's eyes slowly opened as he regained consciousness. Looking around he noticed that he was lying in a small room most likely back at Tazuna's house. Trying to raise himself up he suddenly had to bite back a shout of pain. Looking to his right he saw his whole entire arm, including fingers, was wrapped to the shoulder in medical tape. The reason for his pain was the red stain that slowly started to blossom on the white background. Scowling, Naruto raised himself up making sure to not reopen all of the wounds on his arm.

Naruto slowly walked around the house noticing how quiet it seemed to be. His quiet peace was cut short as he heard yelling from the outside. Frowning once again, the injured boy walked towards the noise.

"But you don't understand! He was my dream, the reason I became kunoichi! Why did it have to turn out like this?" Naruto heard Sakura wail. Hmmm, apparently she found out about Suki. Looks like things were going to get complicated.

"Sakura it is you who doesn't understand. Do you think she wanted to stay like that for most of her life? Do you think that was fun for her? That wasn't a happy life at all! You are a ninja of Konoha. This is not a game Sakura! Did you even realize you can die out on the field? And you did this for what, a boy you think you love? Grow up girl!" Well looks like Kakashi was trying to give Sakura a pep talk. Naruto decided he might need to intervene before his sensei got really mad.

"You're wrong. You're so wrong! You don't know about true love! You don't know what I did this for!" Just as Kakashi was about to blow up at the crying, pink haired girl, a voice interrupted them.

"So what about your family?"

Kakashi whirled around and spotted Naruto leaning a wall. He instantly noted the red spots that were visible on Naruto's arm and started for the boy. Naruto held up his non injured arm to stop his sensei. "Well Sakura? What about your family? Don't you care about them?"

"Of course I care about my family you Baka, why would you think I don't?" Sakura asked looking insulted.

Naruto walked towards his pink haired teammate and stared at her causing her to look clearly uncomfortable. Just as she was about to smack him for freaking her out, he spoke. "Did you know that in the eyes of many we have been trained as killers? We have the ability to blend into our surroundings so we can kill without being noticed, the knowledge of where the vital points of person's body are, the ability to throw sharpened pieces of metal at an insane speed so that it can kill as quick as possible." Naruto said almost whispering as he looked towards the sky. Sakura was left speechless, amazed at how profound her blonde teammate sounded. Well considering the fact that Naruto was a bit stupid sometimes this was pretty amazing. Naruto noticed her look and laughed.

"I guess having my arm explode has given me a little bit of maturity. But Sakura I want you to know that I don't think that I was trained as a killer. I was trained as a protector, and with the skills that I have learned and my nindo I will protect those precious to me." Naruto said as he started to walk back inside. "You're smart. I'm sure you can figure out what you want to do eh Sakura-chan."

Sakura watched Naruto head back into the house, her mind reeling from what the boy said to her. Beside her Kakashi sighed and rubbed his forehead. "I hate this job." he muttered. Sakura raised her eyebrow but said nothing. Suddenly she remembered what she was arguing with her sensei about and decided they needed to finish their conversation.

"Sensei…I'm sorry. I just don't know how to deal with all this. It's too much right now and my inner self is screaming for me let out all my frustration." Sakura mumbled. "**Shanaro! Hell yeah I am. Your brain is already fucked up as it is**!" Inner Sakura yelled out. 'Shut up. This is not the time.' Sakura thought back.

"Inner self? Ah the Haruno bloodline runs strong through you I suppose." Kakashi said. "It does flow stronger in women. Did you know that some of your family were shinobi? I don't know much about your kekkei genkai but from what I have seen in the males, the Haruno bloodline gives them increased perception and faster reflexes because of a voice inside their head, well at least that's what I have heard. Women have a slower perception but instead they have a whole different persona inside their mind. I've heard they are very hard to put under a genjutsu." Sakura blinked owlishly at the explanation of her family the only thing she could say was a 'huh'.

Shaking her head she started to speak. "Wait, you know of my family? Wait, I have a bloodline?" Kakashi sighed again and cursed whatever deity gave him such a complicated team.

* * *

Naruto found himself inside the room Suki was lying in and sat down. His mind was still hazy from all the excitement that went on but it seemed that Sasuke's change to Suki wasn't a dream. Groaning to himself, he decided to let the girl rest before he asked any questions. As he went to leave he heard a noise.

"Naruto…" said boy turned around and saw the black haired girl sitting up, watching him with curious eyes. "What are you doing here?"

"Uh um, I was just checking to see how you were doing? I wanted to see how you were," Naruto said. Suki raised an eyebrow to that before her face settled into an impassive mask.

"Hn, well I seem to be alive but now I am like this. I'll always be like this from now on. What you see in front of you is the real me." Suki said.

"What happened?" Naruto sat back down to listen to the girl in front of him, watching her to see if she decided to talk.

"When I was young the doctor made a misdiagnosis and labeled me as a boy. The Uchiha council was thrilled with the chance of not having one but two prominent male figures that were the sons of the Uchiha clan head. When I was born, problems arose. I was a girl. The council could not know about this. If that were to happen then I would be married off to someone that would make our clan more powerful. I would be the breeding tool of the Uchiha." Suki stated, spitting out 'tool' in disgust. "My father would have nothing like that happen to me. With the help of a seal and the collective chakra of my mother and father I was changed to look like a boy, and not just my looks, my anatomy, my genetics everything changed. The ritual took a lot out of my father and mother so for years they weren't strong enough to train me. The job fell upon my older brother, Itachi."

"Wait, isn't that the person you want to kill?" Naruto cut in.

"Yeah that is him."

"But if he protected you why would you want to kill him?"

"Because he betrayed us! He betrayed me... The Uchiha massacre was caused by him. He killed everyone, including Father and Mother, but for some reason he spared me. I want to understand why he did that and I want to avenge my clan by taking his life." Suki said. Her fists tightened in anger while her eyes were shut tight trying to hold in the tears that threatened to spill. Naruto gained a thoughtful look on his face as he thought about the girl's situation.

"Well if that's the case I could always help you." Naruto told her. Suki's head snapped up in shock and Naruto continued. "Yeah cause, well, we are teammates and I guess we'll be on this team for a long time. Why not help each other out?" Naruto said scratching the back of his head. Suki looked shocked for a second before schooling her features and smirking.

"Hn, just don't drag me down idiot."

"OI!"

* * *

"Sooooo, uh I'm not too sure how to say this but what are you guys going to do now?" Team 7 stood in front of the now finished bridge all packed up and ready to go. Suki had another pair of clothes but seeing as she was now significantly smaller in body mass she had to use the wraps and belts from Sakura's bag to keep her shorts from falling down. It didn't make her feel any better that she had to use the pink haired girl's undergarments either. Naruto's right arm was still bandaged completely though it was more as a precaution for them than for his injury, being that it had healed already. He still wore his jacket with the sleeve burnt off but he didn't really care. What was more important was the people he just asked a question to.

"We're free lancers kid so we just go where the wind takes us. Thankfully your sensei has agreed to let us go which I'm thankful for so we will probably be around. I'd like to say we won't be in contact but I believe you're a bit too interesting not to keep in touch with." Zabuza stated. The two missing nin stood in front of a the town of Wave as the ninja prepared to leave. The swordsman gave a nod to Haku and she walked forward pulling something from her pouch. Opening Naruto's hand she placed what Naruto believed was a small phone. Naruto poked at it for a second before looking up with questioning look.

"That is a mobile communicator; it is like a phone but can be carried around and used in different places. Zabuza-sama and I each have one in case we need to contact each other. His number should already be in there. Just press one and call." Haku said as she opened the cover to show a number pad and speaker on the top.

"Wait, what? You mean I can talk to anyone from a long distance away! I've seen these on TV shows." Naruto said holding the device to the light. "I always thought they were just made up, fictional devices."

Kakashi took the phone from Naruto's hand. "Actually Naruto these are quite real. It's a great use of the mixing of fuinjutsu and technology. It is mostly used by civilians who have a stash of extra money, being that these aren't very cheap. It sends out signals from the device that connect to the electrical poles that are around areas. It's actually quite a complicated piece of work, but all you need to know is that all in all it is basically an extremely long distance walkie talkie." Kakashi said as he handed Naruto back the phone.

"Oh, well, ok but if it's so long distance how come we still have courier ninja and aviary messaging?"

"The phones may work long distance but aren't truly reliable due to the fact that the longer the distance the more likely the chance you won't connect." Sakura said. "My mother has one, but most people buy them just to make sure that if they are in trouble in the village they have someone to call."

"Well I still don't really understand but ok." Naruto said scratching the back of his head. Putting the device into his hip pouch, Naruto looked back towards Haku and Zabuza. "Well I guess this is it." Naruto walked up to Zabuza and held out his hand. The man looked down surprised before smirking under the bandages and grasping the boy's hand.

"Do well out there kid." Haku came up to Naruto and gave him a brief hug once the two were done.

"Good luck Naruto-kun." And with that, the two missing-nin were off. Naruto smiled sadly as he watched them go and then walked back towards his team. After a heartfelt farewell to the people of wave Team 7 was on the road towards Konoha.

* * *

"I truly hate my job."

The Sandaime rubbed his forehead as he received the report for team 7's mission and so far his migraine was only getting bigger. "So let me get this straight. The bridge builder lied about the ranking but will still pay us the proper amount once the country has it. You encountered an A-rank missing nin and survived, Sasuke has now become Suki, the village of Wave is now free, and Naruto is able to be in constant contact with this Zabuza and Haku; am I right so far?" Sarutobi received a nod from the four people in front of him confirming his words. "Grand fucking dandy, I hate this job." The Hokage groaned out.

"Well Jii-San, it isn't all that bad right?" Naruto asked. Receiving a smack to his head from Sakura and whisper to show respect, Naruto continued. "Zabuza and Haku aren't bad, they're just trying to survive and with the phone I guess they trust me enough to say they are on our side. At least my side I guess." Naruto finished rubbing his head.

"The communication device you can keep and you can keep it out of the report unless you wish for it to be taken away. I would prefer that this link to a potential ally to not be taken away due to the council wanting to track them. That can be covered up. However, Suki we need to consider what to do with you." The girl in question nodded her head to the Hokage's words.

"If I may suggest something Hokage-Sama. It may be in my best interest to let me explain it to whom ever asks on my own terms and in my own way. That way we can deal with questions being asked to the council or you." Suki stated. The Sandaime leaned back with a thoughtful expression on his face before nodding.

"That may be the best way to approach this issue for the time being. Till then Team 7 under Hatake Kakashi, you are dismissed." The four ninja bowed low before walking out of the room to leave the Hokage to his work. 'This is going to be a lot of work.' the old man thought with a sigh.

* * *

The three genin plus sensei walked out of the building. "Well my little kiddies, I'm giving you the next three days off. I've got a meeting to go to so do what you must. See ya!" and with that Kakashi was gone in a burst of smoke. With a silent and mutual understanding all three genin left to their own devices each with the thought of getting some well-deserved rest after their ordeal.

Kakashi appeared back in the room he was in not only five minutes ago only this time he was joined by many jounin whom all stood in front of the Hokage. The aged leader gave a nod to Kakashi before straightening and stating "So now that we are all here, I would like to hear which teams will be nominated to participate in the Chunin exams."

* * *

It had been three days and Team 7 was back at their traditional meeting point at the bridge and each one felt a little better after their rest. Sakura was able to convince her mother to explain what the Haruno bloodline could do, but seeing as her mother was a civilian and her father was a merchant, her family didn't have a lot of knowledge about it except for a few journals and scrolls from other family members.

Suki's three days were filled with going to stores to obtain new clothes. Considering that her clan was very wealthy she had no trouble getting some new clothes that fit. She now sported white shorts that stopped mid-thigh but weren't too tight or loose, a black shirt with a high collar like her old shirt except the collar was folded down and the shirt stopped at her stomach showing some of her skin and a little of the chain mesh armor. Her long hair was tied in a ponytail that reached the middle of her back. The new look was complete with the ninja hip pouch and kunai holster attached and a pair of dark blue ninja sandals. All in all it was much the same as her old outfit but fitted for the girl's new form and curves.

Naruto watched his two female teammates as they thought quietly to themselves. It was a change to see Sakura not try and get the attention of Sasuke but seeing as 'he' was now 'she' there was no boy to ask out. Unless she wanted to date Suki anyways causing an image in the young boy's mind that he couldn't help but blush at. Yawning out loud Naruto leaned against the bridge as the wind blew his open jacket back letting him enjoy the warmth of the sun on his mesh armor shirt. Just as he was about to relax he heard the sound of smoke billowing out and turned around to see his sensei.

"Good morning my wonderful students! Today I have a surprise for you. Meet me at our training ground and be ready!" Kakashi said before he was gone again.

"He had us wait just for that?" Sakura dead panned.

"Hn, what a lazy man." Suki said before walking off. Naruto could only agree as they headed towards their training ground. As they walked down the street the three ninja ran into Konohamaru and his little band of friends. The kids spotted the team of genin and immediately rushed towards them.

"Boss, you're back from your mission! Can you play ninja with us now?" the kids asked. Naruto laughed and scratched his head. He wanted to play but he needed to rush to meet with Kakashi. Before he could say anything Sakura cut in.

"A ninja playing ninja? That sounds extremely sad."

"Hey, don't knock it till you try it! I like to help them get better at their ninja skills while they are still in the academy." Naruto shot back. Suki just raised her eyebrow at the exchange but decided to say nothing.

"Hey boss is she your girlfriend?" Konohamaru asked with a smirk, raising his pinky. Naruto chuckled nervously and blushed at the thought before laughing.

"Nah Konohamaru she's just my teammate."

"Of course boss. Cause there is no way you'd go out with this girl with her huge head! The black-haired one must be your girlfriend; she's cute and obviously matches with you!" Naruto's face was a mix of extremely pale and pink from both fear and embarrassment while Suki also went pale though if you looked closely you could see the small blush at being called cute. However both Naruto and Suki slowly turned towards their pink-haired teammate and watched in horror as a dark aura surrounded her.

"Konohamaru, take Moegi and Udon and run."

"Wait wha-?"

"Just run!" With that said, Naruto along with the kids ran for their lives while Sakura screamed in righteous fury and chased after them. Suki just blinked slowly trying to grasp what just happened then sighed and followed along.

"Idiots."

Naruto thought that he and the kids could escape but that was until Konohamaru ran into a boy older then Naruto in what looked like a cat suit and wearing make-up. "Oi kid watch where you're going!" the boy grunted. Sakura caught up to them but stopped her rampage as the older boy grabbed Konohamaru by the scruff of his neck.

"Kankurou just let the kid go. You don't want him to get impatient do you?" A girl to the boy's side asked. She was wearing a purple and white battle dress that cut off at her thighs and her hair was in what looked like four pony tails. She was also older than him Naruto noted as he noticed the large item behind her back. All in all she looked pretty but the scowl on her face was a bit intimidating Naruto thought.

"Oi, let him down!" Naruto yelled out, Moegi and Udon behind the blonde. Kankurou sneered at Naruto before lifting Konohamaru higher.

"Why should I? This little runt bumped into me." Naruto held his hand up and curled it into the gun position, pointing it at the older boy.

"I'll say it again, let him go or else."

"Oh yeah? Or else what?" The end of Naruto's finger started to glow blue as he focused his chakra. He heard Sakura trying to plead with the older ninja to let the kid down and as he watched his pointer finger become encased in small orb of blue, getting ready to fire. The girl with ponytails saw Naruto's hand and the chakra that surrounded his finger and jabbed Kankurou in the side.

"Ouch Temari what the hell?" Just as she was about to yell at her brother to let the boy down a pebble came flying and hit Kankurou's hand, forcing him to let Konohamaru down. The boy scrambled behind Naruto immediately and looked to where everyone saw the rock come from.

"I believe they asked you to put the boy down more than enough times." Suki stated, leaning against a tree branch.

"Suki-chan!" Sakura said excited to see someone do something. Naruto made 'tch'ing sound thinking, 'why does everyone steal my spotlight'.

Just as Kankurou was about to yell at Suki a voice pierced the area. "Kankurou, you are disgracing yourself." The sharp dry voice came from a red-haired boy in black and grey shinobi clothing with an enormous gourd on his back. Suki looked shocked at the voice, as it came from directly above her without warning, before jumping down next to her two teammates. The red haired boy appeared in a whirlwind of sand next to Kankurou and Temari, looking as calm as ever.

"Gaara! Look I'm sorry I just got angry and-."

"Shut up." Gaara said, cutting him off. The gourd-carrying boy stared at team 7 with hollow eyes, looking from Sakura to Suki then to Naruto who still had the Reigan ready and pointed at the three other ninja.

"Naruto, release your Reigan, Konohamaru and the others are safe." Sakura pleaded. Naruto made a thoughtful sound before relaxing his hand and allowing the chakra to dissipate. While Temari mouthed out Reigan in confusion Sakura continued. "Excuse me what are foreign ninja like you doing here?"

"We're here for the Chunin exams. Don't you guys know?" Temari scoffed.

"Enough. We are leaving." Gaara said. And with that he turned around and walked away leaving his siblings to run after him to get to his side.

"Chunin exams?" Naruto asked. Before he could think about it any farther he realized that they had been there for quite a while. Saying a hasty good bye to the three kids he rushed off with his teammates trailing behind him.

* * *

Naruto stood in front of the door to the exam building waiting for Sakura and Suki. Luckily, he didn't have to wait long because just when he thought of going in the two girls showed up, one clearly nervous.

"Don't worry Sakura-chan we'll be alright." Naruto told her. Sakura tried to smile confidently but still felt nervous. Suki took the initiative and opened the doors.

As team 7 walked up the stairs they found themselves in a hallway where it looked like two genin were blocking a door with the sign 301 over it. While Naruto looked out the window to see if they were on the third floor he heard Suki talk about some kind of genjutsu. Tuning it out, he stared out the window a little longer, deciding that they really were on the second floor.

As he turned around to tell his teammates he noticed that they were following another team walk away. Scratching his head he joined his team and they headed forward.

"So what happened?" Naruto asked.

"There was a genjutsu placed over the sign of the door and I called it out." Suki said.

"Then one of the guys attacked Suki and she went to attack back, but a guy we thought was weak stopped them. Then he...oh I don't want to remember it. The eyebrows, the eyebrows!" Sakura shivered. As Naruto raised his own eyebrow in confusion they were stopped by a loud voice.

"Uchiha Sasuke! I, Rock Lee, challenge you!" Naruto looked up and was blind-sided by the of a boy in a tight fitting green leotard, bowl cut, orange leg warmers, and the largest eyebrows he had ever seen.

"Good God..."

Suki looked at Naruto's astonished face before scowling and looking at the boy in front of her. "My name is actually Suki not Sasuke anymore."

Lee looked confused for a second before jumping down. "Hmmm, strange but that matters not! I wish to challenge you to see how the Uchiha genius can stand up to pure hard work!"

"Hn fine if that is what you wish. I will show you the might of the Uchiha." What happened next was a thorough beating at such speeds that Suki had to activate her Sharingan just to catch Lee's movements. Unfortunately she wasn't fast enough to counter any of the boy's moves and she was helplessly sent into the air via a kick to the chin. Reeling from the blow Suki found the boy behind her in the air. Naruto grit his teeth and readied himself to transform but his actions were unneeded as a pinwheel came flying in and pinned the bandages Lee was going to use to wrap up Suki. Running under Suki, Naruto caught the girl before she could smack into the ground, then turned and saw a strange sight. A talking turtle was berating Lee while said boy was apologizing profusely. An older, more mature copy of Lee appeared on top of the turtle in a puff of smoke. Team 7 didn't quite catch all of the following conversation but apparently Lee had done something wrong because the boy was getting scolded. What happened next made all of team 7 want to take a scalding hot shower.

"Sunset...how is there a sunset? It's not possible." Sakura mumbled rocking back and forth. Naruto's eyes were watering and Suki was lucky enough to turn off the Sharingan before that happened. Oh the torture that would have haunted her if that was engraved in her memory. Naruto grabbed his two teammates in a fireman carry and rushed out of there before the Lee and his Eyebrow-sensei noticed them. They were safe...for now.

* * *

"Well I'm glad you all could make it." Kakashi eye smiled, a bit confused as to why Naruto was carrying both his teammates. As he heard him whisper eyebrows and sunsets over and over again he suddenly understood and rushed to his student's side. "Are you ok? Speak to me you three!" As he shook them all out of their stupor he sighed in relief. It looks like Gai hadn't mind raped them. "As much as I would like to give you all a pep talk I believe you should get inside and be ready. Just remember I'm proud of you guys." Kakashi said, making sure his team was ok. Receiving a nod from each of them he stepped to the side and let them in.

Once they entered the room, team 7 was hit with a collective tide of killer intent. Thanks to their run-in with Zabuza they weren't that affected by it. Suki however had a sudden feeling of doom and yelled out "Naruto fangirl alert!" Naruto immediately went through a few handseals and switched places with Suki using Kawarimi. Just in time too because once they switched they heard a loud voice scream, "Sasuke-kun!"

A blonde-haired girl wearing a purple skirt and matching shirt made a grab for the dark-haired figure that she suspected to be Sasuke as team 7 walked through the door. She coughed a bit as a small amount of ninja smoke appeared and she found herself grabbing none other than Naruto around the neck, their faces inches apart.

"Uh, hi?"

Ino screamed out and brought her righteous fist upon the boy she thought of as a pervert. Naruto was instantly knocked to the ground and laid there groaning in pain.

"Damn you Suki." Naruto's muffled voice called out.

"Well if that's not troublesome I don't know what is." Shikamaru said, scratching his hair that was done in his normal pineapple style. A larger boy with his hair split because of the way his headband was worn put away his chips and went to help Naruto up.

"You ok Naruto?" Chouji asked. Naruto groaned but thanked his former classmate and dusted himself off.

"Sorry Ino, but what you were about to do might have caused some issues."

"Shut up Naruto! Where's my Sasuke forehead?" Ino yelled at Sakura.

"Whatever Ino-pig! Like Sasuke would ever date you!" Sakura yelled back forgetting for a moment that Sasuke was no longer in the picture.

"Yahoo! Looks like the rookies are all here aye, Akamaru?" another voice cut in. Kiba walked out from the shadows in the corners of the waiting room, his red fang markings on his cheek stretching as he smirked. His grey jacket and hood covered his brown hair while a small white puppy barked, his head poking out from Kiba's jacket. Beside him was a girl with dark blue hair and pale shining eyes with no pupil. Her tan jacket made her frame look small as she shrunk down in embarrassment. Hinata poked her fingers together as Shino with his large over coat with a high collar and dark sunglasses walked up beside her, unflappably calm.

Naruto palmed his face, stress getting to him when he noticed Suki standing next to him. The look she gave him clearly stated 'are you going to take care of this or do I have to?'. The whiskered blonde waved his hand motioning that he'd take care of it.

"Sakura-chan are you done?" Sakura stopped yelling at Ino mid-insult and looked to Naruto who glanced over at Suki. Getting the hint she backed up towards her team leaving Ino to stare confused at Sakura, Naruto, and the mystery girl that the rest of the rookie genin had just really noticed. "Guys, I'd like you to reintroduce our teammate."

"Uchiha Suki." Suki interrupted. Team 8 and team 10 could only stare dumbly at the girl who looked like she could in fact be Sasuke's sister. Strangely enough it was Shino that broke the silence with the question that was on everyone's mind.

"What?"

* * *

**Well there you guys have it. Episode 6 is out. Hope you enjoy it. Ok as for as that communication device is concerned I just want you guys to know that it is possible. We give the Naruto to little credit when it comes down to technology. They have short wave radios, movie theaters, hell if any of you guys have seen the movies then you must have seen the freaking ninja gliders that allowed them to fly. I mean if they have that what's to say they can't do anything else. So in short my story will have some tech. **

Jutsu list:

Kuchiyose: Doton: Tsuiga no Jutsu - Summoning: Earth Style: Tracking Fang Justu.

A type of summoning technique in where the user uses a scroll with a specified purpose to direct his or her summons to a direct task without needing to order them in person. Earth based so animals travel underground.

Raikiri - Lightning Blade

An A rank jutsu created by Kakashi himself. Said to be his own created jutsu and was named due to the story of him cutting through real lightning with it. Basically a very high speed jab with a lightning encompassed fist. Due to the speed, tunnel vision is caused which makes the predicting qualities of the Sharingan essential.

Raikiri Ranmyaku - Lightning Blade Chaos

Original jutsu created by Kakashi due to his immense fury during the Wave bridge battle. Not only is one hand encased in lightning chakra but both hands hold the Raikiri. Classified as a now high A rank possible low S rank, Kakashi shows that once he penetrates the enemy's body with both hands he pulls them together inside said body, slicing through bone and organ due to the lightning chakra. When hands are close together Kakashi clasps them together letting the chakra from both Raikiri mix in a volatile way causing a dispersion of lightning chakra around the pierced body. Lightning chakra swirls around the body looking for an opening to escape until the strain is too much and the chakra leaves the body with explosive results.

(Btw if anyone can figure out where I the beginning of this move where the lines of lightning came from, cookies to you!)

**Tigee86: Ugh I'm so over worked from you…**

**Nanashi: Hey you do a good job be porud! For we bring joy to millions! Or at least the few readers that due click on us… Well whatever here's the edited Episode 6! Be ready for Episode 7!**


	7. Stay Together For the Genin

Chapter 7: Stay Together for the Genin

**Nanashi: Welcome one and all to the long awaited Episode 7 of Behold the Mimic. This story is wonderfully looked over and sometimes even co-written by Tigee86. I thank you Tigee.**

**Tigee86: Yeah, yeah well I've been waiting for this to go through. We've been editing the last chapters forever. So stop smashing your head into the table and post this!**

**Nanashi: Right let's get it on! Naruto hit the music.**

**Naruto: I'm back oh thank the Kami! Let's do this**

Intro Music ON: STFU by Girugamesh

Cover: Naruto standing in the Forest of Death, a look of fury on his face. Two other Narutos are behind him, one with a fully charged Reigan and the other with its hands in the ram seal. The original Naruto's hands are at his sides with the palms facing outward, the hands clenched in a claw shape. Behind all three blondes is an enlarged pale face with yellow snake-like eyes. The face is a ghostly image in the background and its eyes hold a craze of greed.

Disclaimer: I and Tigee86 do not own anything that is used as material.

* * *

'Snort' snicker..."Heh heh."

The rest of the Konoha Genin looked curiously at Kiba as the Inuzuka boy struggled to contain a laugh.

"Heheh haha!"

"Kiba-kun?" Hinata murmured curiously "What is so funny?"

"Nothing," Kiba gasped, losing the fight against his amusement. "This just explains why I always thought 'Sasuke' was a little bitchy! Bwahahahaha!"

Suki's eyes widened slightly before they narrowed dangerously at what the Inuzuka said. "I'm sorry Kiba, what was that? I do believe you said something about me being a what now?" Suki gritted out. The boy in question stopped laughing abruptly and shut his mouth as he felt four different killing intents on him, even one coming from Hinata which scared the hell out of him.

"Uh ladies let's not be too hasty." Kiba said as he backed himself up while Ino and Sakura walked slowly towards him. The rest of the boys watched in sympathetic pain as both girls beat down the poor boy from the dog clan, his screams of pain and terror making all the other men in the room wince in empathy.

"Man you guys sure are loud. I'd keep it down if I were you." Naruto looked up from the savage destruction of Kiba to see an older boy walk towards their group. His hair was the same color as Kakashi's Naruto noted, and the way he kept adjusting his glasses made it seem like he needed to get them repaired in the blonde's opinion.

"Who are you?"

"Me, oh my name is Kabuto. And you'd best keep it down. You're drawing unneeded attention to yourself." Kabuto said. "Everyone in this room can tell you guys are rookies." the Konoha Genin looked out into the crowd and saw the whole room giving them evil looks. A small amount of killing intent was directed towards the Genin as well.

Sakura, who had left Kiba moaning in the corner, stepped beside her teammates with a worried expression. "They don't look to happy to see us." she whispered to them.

"No, I don't think they would be. You guys are the fresh meat. These exams are pretty rough." Kabuto said. "They'd look for any chance to take out the competition and you guys aren't helping yourselves." Naruto looked on at all the faces staring at them and grinned.

"Oi! I hope you all are ready to get beaten by me cause I'm here to kick your asses!" Naruto yelled out. Surprise washed over the Chunin hopefuls from the blonde boy's comment before turning into anger. Naruto only grinned to himself before getting pulled into a headlock by Sakura.

"What do you think you're doing you asshole?" Sakura hissed. "Do you want them to attack us?" Kabuto smiled at them and tried to diffuse the situation.

"Now, now, no need to kill your teammate. I believe that I can help you young rookies." the silver haired boy said to them.

Kiba came from behind the group looking at the other with wary eyes, a little beaten up from the girls but ok. "Why should we trust you?"

"Well I do believe that I have some experience in these exams."

"Oh yeah how many times have you taken them?" Naruto said after extracting himself from Sakura's grip.

"Seven times actually." Kabuto said. Kiba laughed loudly and yelled a loud 'You suck!' which was shushed by Ino. Kabuto only laughed light heartily and pulled out a deck of cards. "These here are my ninja info cards. They have information about things I've picked up through the years."

The Genin looked at the deck of orange cards and Kabuto pulled one from the top. "Hey what gives they're blank!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Ah that's cause I haven't put any chakra into them yet. Now watch." The boy sent a surge of chakra into the card and a map of the hidden countries appeared. "As you can see I've gotten some good information. I even have information on some of the Genin."

Suki's attention was piqued after that last comment and she stepped forward. "So you can get information on any Genin I ask?"

"Well for the most part yes." Kabuto said looking at Suki strangely before realization flashed in his eyes for but a second and was replaced by his usual happiness. 'Uchiha Sasuke? I always thought that he was a boy. I wonder if this will interfere with Orochimaru-sama's plans.' Kabuto fanned out the cards in front of him and said "So who do you want to know about?"

"Hyuuga Neji, Rock Lee, and Gaara."

"Aww you know their names already. Now that just makes it too easy." Kabuto said pulling out three cards. "Okay so we have Hyuuga Neji under jounin leader Maito Gai. Completed a hundred twenty-eight D rank missions, twenty-five C rank, and three B rank. From the famed Hyuuga clan who hold the Byakugan. He is said to be a prodigy with their Taijutsu style and was the top rookie from his graduation class. Now we have Rock Lee. He is from the same team as Neji and has the same mission record. However he seems to have been the lowest scoring person in his class. His ninjutsu and genjutsu skills are nothing, but his taijutsu is amazing. From what I've heard he is a special case and was requested specifically by Gai. This is probably due to his outstanding hand to hand skills." Suki clenched her fist at hearing that. She'd experienced firsthand Lee's skill and now she learned he was the lowest scorer like Naruto. This did not help her self-esteem. "Now we have Gaara or Sabaku no Gaara, let's see...whoa."

"What's wrong with that guy's card?" Naruto asked trying to get a look at it.

"Well it says here that he has completed twenty D ranks, a hundred and forty C ranks, two hundred B ranks, and he has an A rank or two under his belt. The scary thing is that that every mission he has been on, he has never gotten a scratch." Everyone was shocked by this and their moods dropped slightly after hearing about all the strong competitors.

"Now guys its ok. You all should be fine. There are people here that I know you can take. In fact there is a team from a new village called Oto and my information says they aren't very strong." Kabuto said smiling.

Three people behind the silver haired boy bristled at that comment and looked at each other. "Hey Dosu we gonna let that glasses-wearing freak bad mouth us?" the spiky haired boy said.

"I say we teach him a lesson." the girl said, her long black hair swaying from side to side. The boy in the middle looked to nod though it was hard to see it due to the bandages covering most of his face but his right eye. The fur like coat ruffled with his nod.

"Shall we?" With that Kin threw a round of senbon at Kabuto causing him to dodge to the side. Dosu than rushed at him and swung his right arm at the stumbling teen. Kabuto dodged it and smirked before his eyes widened and his glasses broke. A cough escaped his lips as blood seeped from his mouth. 'What happened? I thought I dodged.' Kabuto thought.

"Don't bad mouth Oto shinobi, punk." Dosu said to the gasping Kabuto.

"Oi! What the hell you bastards!" Naruto yelled, getting ready to pounce on the boy in front of him. Suddenly a blast of smoke caught everyone's attention as a loud voice from the front of the room silenced all the talking.

"What the hell is going on here!" a man bellowed as he walked out of the smoke. His large trench coat swaying from his movements while a black bandana with his leaf head band attached to it covered a good portion of his head. "There is no fighting unless I say so! Everyone got that!" Ibiki yelled loudly. "You got that you Oto brats?"

"Sorry, we're just really hyped up." Dosu apologized though he really didn't mean it.

"Whatever. Now everyone my name is Morino Ibiki and I shall be your first proctor for the Chunin exams. Find your name on a desk and sit down so I can explain the rules." There was a shuffling of feet as everyone found their seats. Naruto was in the middle of the pack and noticed that Sakura and Suki were placed a fair distance away from him.

'I wonder what this test will be?' the blonde ninja thought.

"This portion of the exam is the written exam." There was a collective gasp from the crowd but Ibiki carried on. "You will be given a test and you and your teammate's scores will be taken together. If one person fails then the whole team fails." Naruto started to sweat heavily as he could feel his team's eyes on him. "You all start out with ten points. For each wrong answer you will lose a point. If you are caught cheating you will lose a point. If you are caught cheating three times you fail automatically. You and your team will then be kicked out! And remember we are all watching." Ibiki finished his speech and motioned to the ninja that were along the walls. Naruto's pupils slowly shrank to the size of pinpricks as the reality of the situation hit him.

"So this is a test then?" Naruto said raising his hand, the only audible thought that would come to him. Ibiki sneered at the boy and walked around the desks to look down at him.

"Yes, that would be correct. What part of that didn't you get idiot?" Ibiki snarled. Naruto bristled at that comment but held his tongue. If this guy was looking down on him he'd show this jerk.

"Now let's begin!"

* * *

The Genin were all silent as they tried to complete their tests. Suki was looking down at her paper in morbid fascination at the questions in front of her. 'What the hell is this? No one could answer these questions.' Unknown to her Sakura was almost halfway done with her test with Ino watching her intently. Suki looked around her and noticed that something was off. Many people were like her and were staring baffled at their papers. It then hit her. 'Why would they only take away a point if you cheat? If this were a test back at the academy we would fail immediately. They want us to cheat!' Suki looked around before looking down and closing her eyes. "Sharingan." She whispered, her doujutsu springing to life and she peered up slowly, easily finding someone who seemed to be doing well on their test. She immediately started to copy their movements.

Unlike his female team members, Naruto was having a small breakdown. He was racking his brain for anyway to get passed this test and he could only come to one conclusion. He had to cheat. Sifting through his move set Naruto failed to realize who he was sitting next to.

Hinata had noticed that Naruto was struggling. After using her Byakugan to copy the answers from one of the people sitting in front of her she used the rest of her time to observe her crush. She had practice observing the blonde before, in the past, though she wouldn't compare it to the fan girl obsession that other girl's from her class had with Sasuke. She would never admit that it was dangerously close.

Shaking herself from those thoughts, Hinata shyly poked Naruto on the arm to get his attention. "Naruto-kun." Naruto looked over and saw the blue-haired girl poking her fingers together. Raising his eye brow in confusion he leaned forward. "I-if you w-would like you can look at m-my test." Naruto looked at her in surprise and smiled. Hinata may have acted a bit weird sometimes but she was really a nice girl. But he really didn't want to get her in trouble. She seemed too nice to get thrown out. Looking around he noted the proctors watching everything like a hawk. A pair of eyes found his and he two stared at one another for a moment before they both looked away. No. If he cheated off Hinata's paper he might get her thrown out too. He had to do this on his own. But he still had no ideas.

"Sorry Hinata, but I can't do that." Hinata looked at Naruto and was afraid she did something wrong but Naruto only grinned at her. "I don't want you to get in trouble for helping me. I'd never hear the end of it from Kiba. Getting help from you is a...real...stretch…" Naruto said as his eyes widened. Hinata seemed to calm down after that and nodded before turning to look at the others wondering why Naruto started to speak strangely at the end. For Naruto, as he was speaking he just got one of the most brilliant ideas of his life. Now to make sure he could go through with it.

Looking all around him, Naruto leaned forward and quietly whispered 'Henge' as he transformed his arm. Leaning back in an attempt to look casual, Naruto stretched his arm to the ground and began walking his hand forward with his fingers. Snaking his rubber limb through chair legs, Naruto's hand arrived behind one of the examinees who had finished. Waiting until the older boy wasn't looking; Naruto snatched the boy's paper and let his arm retract.

WHOOOSH! Snap

Everyone jumped at the unexpected sound, looking around.

"What the hell was that!" Ibiki boomed, peering into the crowd of Genin angrily.

Ignoring the stir he'd caused, Naruto erased the other boy's name and cheerfully wrote in his own. "Hehehe, who's an idiot now?" he whispered as his grin reached his eyes while he looked at Ibiki as the imposing man looked around for the source of the noise.

"Hey, what the hell happened to my test!" the boy Naruto stole the test from yelled out. Hinata looked at the Genin confused seeing as she had used him to copy her answers. The Genin was kicked out after the outburst and Naruto just sat there and smiled. Suki however had heard that elastic-like snap before and her eyes fell on her smiling teammate. He did something but as long as he passed she didn't care.

* * *

"That's complete bullshit!" Naruto yelled loudly as he slammed his hand onto the table glaring at the man in front of him. "Even if you ban me from these exams I still will find a way to become Hokage. You can bet your life that I will do it." Naruto growled out towards Ibiki and Ibiki only stared back before looking up to the rest of the Genin, most of them having already left.

"So no one else is going to quit now?" His question was met with defiant stares. 'It seems that blonde brat gave them confidence' the head of the T&I department thought. "Fine than, I guess you all pass."

"What!"

"Being a Chunin is more than just using your strength. You have to be a good leader and know how to make tough decisions." Ibiki said as he took off his bandana and showed the room his scars and burns. "This is what being a ninja is about. You will need to lead someday and be ready to sacrifice everything. Are you ready for that?" The scarred man spoke to the whole room but his eyes were on Naruto alone. Naruto nodded to the man and he nodded back and put back on his headband and wrap. "Now since-" Ibiki was cut off as one of the windows to the side of the room shattered and a smoke bomb went off. A banner then crashed in and attached itself to the ceiling with kunai tied to the corners of it. The banner said 'Here comes the second proctor, the sexy and single Mitirashi Anko!' A blur flew in and once the smoke cleared all the guys had to hold their noses thanks to the young woman in front of them.

"Here I am, Tokubetsu Jounin, the sexy, single Anko!" she said as her tan mini skirt and matching trench coat flapped behind her. Her fishnet shirt barely covered her modesty and sent the boys imaginations wild while her purple hair was pulled up. "Wow Ibiki you sure are slacking off. There are twenty-six teams here."

"What can I say? We got a good bunch this year." was his reply.

"Tch whatever. Alright you maggots get outside and follow me!" Anko then jumped out the window leaving a very confused group behind her.

Naruto got up from his chair and ran up next to his teammates as they filed outside. "So what do you guys think is next?" he asked. Suki shrugged and Sakura held her chin in contemplation.

"We might have to do an obstacle course. We've already done a test." Sakura said as they walked out to where Anko was standing in front of a large gate. Naruto looked into the forest behind the fence while howls and roars filled the air.

"I hope not. Or at least not in there." he gulped. The group formed around Anko as she explained the rules of the second exam. After Naruto heard that he nudged Sakura causing her to look at him. "I'll take the obstacle course please." The pink-haired Genin could only nod with a pale face.

"Now line up and sign these waiver forms. After that, pick up your scroll and head to your gate." Anko said. Team seven signed their forms feeling in the pit of their stomach that something bad was going to happen. Grabbing their Heaven scroll, they waited for the bell and when the gates opened, they rushed off.

* * *

"So if we get lost and separated we are going to need a password." Suki said as they rested on a branch after running for a few hours. Naruto and Sakura agreed and sat down. "So the password will be the Nin song. The shadows and silence is a ninja's weapon. Those who hide in their weapons will surely win. Got it?"

"Got it."

"Wait, what?" Suki shook her head Naruto.

"I'm not repeating it dobe. Just be ready if something happens." Suki said. Naruto grunted and nodded before standing up.

"Fine then, I just won't get separated from you guys." Naruto boasted.

"See that you don't."

"Don't worry, I won't. Just make sure you keep up Suki-teme." Naruto was smacked in the head after he said that.

"Naruto quit talking to Suki like that!" Sakura yelled.

"Ow jeez Sakura-chan. You hit ha-. Wait, do you guys hear something?" Team seven stopped talking to hear a loud whooshing noise. Suddenly, a great gust of wind whipped around the three teens. Sakura and Suki were lucky enough to get behind a tree and brace themselves with chakra. Naruto wasn't so lucky and flew through the trees.

"Gahhhhh what fuckkkkkk..." Naruto's yell was lost in the wind as he tumbled head over toe into the dark forest. Naruto landed heavily and rolled on the ground before stopping next to a tree. Coughing a bit, he pushed himself up and checked his equipment.

"Ugh man, what was that? Well looks like all my stuff is good and Hauk's phone is still perfectly safe. Man I guess this thing is made of metal." Naruto said, poking his phone. "Now where am I?" Naruto looked around the clearing he was in but stopped when he heard a hissing noise. Turning around he came face to face with the biggest snake he had ever seen. "Sweet Kami you're bigger than a house." the shocked boy whispered. The snake screeched before lunging for the boy. Naruto managed to jump out of the way with a very unmanly shriek.

The snake crashed into the ground and reared back up while letting the dirt and mud fall from its mouth. Naruto jumped to a nearby tree and looked at the snake in fear. "Holy crap I'm going to die!" The snake reared its body up and lunged for Naruto again. With a precise jump Naruto flew above the snake and quickly transformed his arm, Luffy's style. "Gomu Gomu no Pistoru!" Naruto yelled throwing his arm back then shooting it forward. The extending fist smashed into the snake's head. The force behind the punch caused the snake's head to fly back before it brought its head forward again. Its eyes looked enraged after the punch and Naruto yelped before flipping over the creature's next lunge and sliding down the body of the snake. "Not even that knocked you out! Fine, let's try this one." Naruto said as he ran around the giant serpent, its eyes following the blonde. When the snake struck again, Naruto jumped to the side and stretched his arm again. "Gomu Gomu no Pistoru!" as the arm stretched towards the snake Naruto grabbed his transformed arm with his left hand and twanged it so that it sprang up and down. "To Shottogan(Gum Gum Shotgun)!" Instead of one fist flying towards the snake the vibration from the rubber arm made it so that it was a small flurry punches that rained down on snake. The extra hits caused the snake to crash down into the ground and Naruto's arm sprang back with a loud snap.

"Haha take that you stupid reptile!" Naruto yelled as his arm became normal again in a burst of smoke. As he turned around a shadow fell upon him causing him to look up. "Kami have mercy..." he squeaked before he was swallowed. The snake seemed to smirk and settled down for a few minutes. A loud roar from its stomach put the snake back on the alert but it was for naught. "Tajuu Kage bunshin no jutsu (Multi Shadow clone jutsu)!" Hundreds of Narutos sprang from the snake and the serpent was left a blown up husk. "That was disgusting." Naruto said as he wiped off the snake guts from his clothes.

"Yuck. This is worse than the time I had to throw you at that Zabuza guy." A Naruto said as it tried to get grime out of its hair.

"Yeah, well, this is way worse. Wait a second." Naruto stopped trying to clean up and looked at the bunshin. "What do you mean when you said 'I had to throw you'? Wasn't that Suki who did that and plus, how do you even know you did that?"

"Oh yeah, it was her wasn't it. And me, well, I guess I keep my own little conscience. You assigned me as your main clone that one time so I named myself Naru-ichi. Though I guess you could just call me Ichi for short." Ichi said as he squeezed out his hair. Naruto looked at his clone oddly.

"So whenever I use Kage bunshin you'll be there?"

"Pretty much. I'm your main clone so even if you call one out that'll be me I believe. I'm still just a clone though." Naruto stroked his chin in thought.

"Hmm odd, but whatever. I need to go find the girls so see ya."

"See ya boss." And with that Naruto dispelled his clones and bound off.

* * *

"Naruto!" Suki yelled as she saw Naruto fly away. Suki looked back to see a woman from Kusa drop from the foliage and look at her and Sakura with a hungry look.

"Suki-chan, what are we going to do. Naruto isn't here." Sakura whispered.

"Don't worry. We'll just get the scroll off this woman and find the dobe after." Suki said.

"Well hello Sasuke-kun. I'm glad I finally found you. I've been hoping to battle you for your scroll." the woman from the village of grass said. Suki glared at the woman in front of her and reached for a kunai. 'If this lady still thought I'm Sasuke than she must be here to try to get the glory of beating me.' Suki thought, disgusted. Sometimes having a famous name wasn't all that it was cracked up to be.

"Sorry to disappoint!" Suki yelled across the clearing. "But I'm not Sasuke anymore. But if you still want to be beat I'll gladly give you a beating." The woman walked out from the shadow of the branches and looked closely at Suki before tilting her head curiously.

"So the rumors are true." she chuckled. "The famed Uchiha Sasuke is actually a girl. My, this is a strange occurrence but it doesn't hinder my plans too much. So now I do believe we have an exam to finish." Suki and Sakura pulled their weapons out after hearing the Kusa Genin's comment and waited for her to move. She only shook her head and scoffed while reaching for her eye.

"Ha, foolish…" She pulled down her eyelid and the two girls were instantly hit by the strongest killer intent they have ever felt. "You should never let the enemy make the first move." the mysterious woman said.

Suki could only stare in fear as she saw her death. She saw it over and over again and the cause of it was this strange woman. 'I'm going to die. I'm truly going to die!' Suki thought as she stood petrified on the branch, her pink haired teammate not fairing any better. The Kusa nin further disturbed them by pulling out her scroll and asking them if this what they wanted before swallowing it whole.

As Sakura fell to her knees and tears fell from her eyes the woman only let out a sinister chuckle. "Now really, is that all you have? I would have expected more from the Uchiha. Well I guess if you're this bad you aren't worth keeping alive." The Kusa Genin then pulled a few kunai from her pouch and flung them at the two girls.

Suki watched the flying weapons approach her and could do nothing as her mind was still paralyzed in fear. While they inched closer a voice boomed in her mind. **'Move you fool!**' The voice broke the trance Suki was in and with quick thinking she bit her lip till she bled to make the pain free her body. The kunai struck wood and the older Genin looked at the tree that the two Konoha ninja were hiding behind.

"How interesting, using pain to break your fear. I commend you for that." Suki looked back from the shadows after snapping Sakura out of her fear. This woman was strong, maybe even stronger than Zabuza. What was she doing in these exams? Suki dismissed those thoughts while quietly thanking the voice for the help. The girl version of her younger self still was with her; this may need to be addressed later. Suki pushed that thought to the back of her mind and turned to Sakura.

"Suki, who is that?" Sakura gasped. "That can't be a Genin."

"We may have to fight our way out of this Sakura. When I give you the signal I want you to use your best genjutsu. You have learned one from that book right?" Sakura nodded her head and started to build chakra for her technique. Suki looked behind the tree again and slowly walked out.

"Oh, so you are ready to fight now?"

"That last attack surprised me. But now you have my full attention." Suki got into a fighting stance as her Sharingan sprang to life. "Now I will show you the might of the Uchiha." Suki sped forward using chakra to boost her speed as she ran up the tree towards the other ninja. The Kusa woman laughed loudly and ran to meet Suki while throwing out a punch. Suki easily dodged to the side while still running and threw out her leg and caught her opponent in the stomach. Hearing a hiss of pain, Suki capitalized on the woman's stunned form and spun around the Genin, slamming her fist into her head.

The woman fell forward and tried to right herself only to receive a kick to the face that sent her skidding across the tree branch. She stood up slowly and brushed herself off while smiling still. "My, it seems you do have some skills."

* * *

Orochimaru, still disguised as the Kusa woman, cackled loudly as he jumped from branch to branch. He was glad that Suki seemed to be fighting back. After she had broken free from her fear and saved that pink haired girl they had traded blows back and forth. He was currently going higher into the tree tops looking around. Suki was out of his field of vision at the moment. Just as he jumped into the air again he felt like the sky and the earth were ripped apart and flipped upside down. This gave him an unwanted case of vertigo that was sickening but not too debilitating to a ninja of his power. 'So that pink haired brat knows Ninpo: Sora Kagami no jutsu (Ninja art: Sky Mirror jutsu)? Quite the complicated genjutsu for a Genin.' Orochimaru thought. His thoughts were cut off as Suki came from above and slammed his body into the foliage of a large tree. Suki wasn't done as she pulled varying sized shuriken from her pouch and threw them at the disguised Sannin. Using her Sharingan to guide the attack, she manipulated the wires leading down to the shuriken to wrap around Orochimaru, effectively pinning him to the tree.

"Now it's time to end this!" Suki said as she ran through handseals. Using the trick she had learned from Kakashi's book she held the chakra in her mouth and compressed it, effectively making the fire chakra raise in temperature. "Katon: Ryuuka no jutsu (Fire style: Fire Dragon jutsu)!" Suki opened her mouth as a flame roared around her and then ran down the wire leading to the trapped shinobi. The flame looked almost white hot, much more powerful than it should be, as it ran down the line and hit Orochimaru. The fire hit him in a blast of heat and incinerated a good portion of the tree leaving the rest of it smoldering.

Suki plopped down and breathed heavily. That was one of her strongest fire jutsus and compressing the chakra to a more concentrated form took a lot out of her. Luckily, the technique should have finished that Kusa Genin. Too bad it might have burned that scroll too. Sakura jumped up to the branch that she was resting on and sat down beside Suki.

"So you think we killed her?" Sakura asked in a shaky voice. She was a ninja but killing was still foreign to her. She may not have killed the other person but she sure helped. Just as Suki was about to respond the two of them heard chuckling and both turned to the melting crater in the tree to see a form pull itself out.

"Oh my, what power. I truly am proud of you Suki-chan." Orochimaru stood up and pulled off the face he was using showing his pale visage to the world. "Oh yes, I do believe you will do nicely for this gift." Orochimaru jumped forward, reaching for the downed form of Suki when an orange blur knocked him off balance.

"Well now, looks like I came just in time." Naruto said as he stood up in front of his two teammates. "You guys ok? By the way Suki, I forgot that stupid password."

"Naruto! Thank god you're ok! This girl, no guy, is really powerful. We need to get...what smells like snake guts?" Sakura said cutting off her speech as she sniffed the air. Suki too gave a sniff and wrinkled her nose at the foul smell. The two girls looked at Naruto who looked away with a blush.

"What? Shut up! I had to survive okay!" Naruto yelled back. "Anyways, come on this guy can't be too hard. We can take him." Suki picked herself up and stood in front of Naruto while reaching into her pouch.

"Here take our scroll. This is what you want right?" Suki said about to throw the scroll over, ignoring the squawk of surprise from Naruto. Just as she was about to throw the scroll over Naruto grabbed her arm and pushed her away. "What the hell dobe?"

"Who are you?" Naruto said jumping away from Suki and Sakura onto another branch. "The Suki that I know doesn't just give up like that!" Naruto said pointing at Suki.

"Oh I believe she was doing the right thing Naruto-kun. Giving an offering to the predator so you, the prey, can get away." Orochimaru held up his hands smirking.

"Shut up or I'll shut you up!" Naruto growled out putting the scroll into his pouch.

"Kukuku what makes you think you can defeat me if your obviously more talented teammate can't." Naruto's eyes flickered red before they went back to their shining blue as he growled.

"You want to see what I can do!" Naruto made a handseal and four clones appeared beside him. "I'll show you what I can do!" After that exclamation Naruto and his bunshin all ran out going to flank Orochimaru.

"Wait Naruto, stop!" Suki yelled as she went to stop him. She stumbled and reached for the trunk of the tree, finally noticing how much her last attack had really drained her. 'Damn, I can't move right! Naruto is in way over his head!' Suki thought as she yelled out for him to stop.

Sakura watched in fear as the strange man weaved in and out of Naruto's attacks while dodging surprise attacks from his clones. This person frightened her. At first he was a strange woman from Kusa but now he looked like someone she knew she had seen in books. He was someone of great danger and one of the most dangerous men in the ninja world. "Orochimaru..." Sakura ignored Suki's puzzled expression and ran to the edge of their platform-like branch. "Naruto, run! Hurry please!" Sakura screamed. "That's Orochimaru!"

* * *

Orochimaru looked down at Sakura with a small frown as he threw the blonde's final clone into a tree effectively dispelling it. "Well it seems like my cover is blown. Now I have to get rid of that pink haired girl before she screams it out to the whole forest." Orochimaru said to himself as he performed a set of seals before slamming his hand onto the wood he was standing on. "Kuchiyose no jutsu (Summoning jutsu)!" A large cloud of smoke obscured the three Genin's vision and when the smoke cleared they saw an enormous snake towering over them.

"Shit! Not another huge snake!" Naruto yelled as the snake straightened itself so that it stood tall with Orochimaru on its head. With a flick of the Sannin's wrist the snake hissed loudly before rushing at the two girls. Naruto's eyes widened and he rushed forward. Just as the snake was upon Suki and Sakura, just as Sakura screamed in fear and backed away, just as Suki stumbled back and the Sharingan faded due to lack of chakra concentrated to it, a roar pierced the sky and blur of orange and red sprang in front of the snake. The Jinchuriki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune had tapped into his tenant's chakra and used the blood red energy to speed in front of the snake. With a yell of anger he punched the snake making it screech and its head fly up.

Naruto screamed in rage and jumped high as he kicked the larger than normal snake into the ground, his ruby red eyes shining in malice. The snake screeched out again as it felt pain erupt across its body, but the Kyuubi-induced craze that Naruto was in didn't let him stop there. The blonde boy landed on the snake's head and pointed his hand down at the serpent in a gun shape. Red chakra swirled around him before Naruto's finger glowed bright with crimson power as an orb encased his pointer finger's tip.

"REIGAN!" Naruto roared letting loose a blast of red chakra that tore into the snake's head brutally, sending it back to the summon realm. Orochimaru looked on in surprise, a sick grin spreading across his disguised face.

"Oh my yes Naruto-kun, you have such an enormous amount of power don't you?" the Snake Sannin laughed having jumped away since Naruto's first hit. Naruto turned his head up to Orochimaru before growling and blurring up to him. Suki could only watch mesmerized as her teammate moved at insane speeds to the point where he flickered in and out of her vision. So scared was she that she had forgotten to activate her Sharingan again, the doujutsu that could maybe give her a chance to see Naruto blurring about.

Naruto appeared on a branch below Orochimaru and threw out one of his arms towards him. The arm transformed quickly and flew at the surprised man. Orochimaru's eyes widened at the act and quickly leaned to the side letting the punch pass by him. "Gomu Gomu no Raketo (Gum Gum Rocket)!"

'What the hell is this?' Orochimaru thought but had to jump up to avoid Naruto who used his rubber arm to pull him at startling speeds towards Orochimaru.

The Genin skidded across the branch before launching himself back at his enemy and throwing his arm back once more to stretch. Orochimaru was taken by surprise of the ferocity of the boy and watched as Naruto sank low and threw the stretched fist forward to slam into his stomach for a close range attack.

"Gomu Gomu no Burreto (Gum Gum Bullet)!" Orochimaru's body careened back and slammed into a tree with a sickening crunching sound. The force of his impact was so strong that the massive tree trunk that Orochimaru hit started to groan and crack. The snake Sannin pulled himself out of his crater with a grunt.

"What power. I can only assume that it is coming from the Kyuubi." Orochimaru said standing tall. "However, those strange attacks intrigue me. I will have to watch you more closely Naruto-kun." After Orochimaru said his he appeared behind the berserker boy with blinding speed and grabbed him by the neck. "Amuse me more in the future boy. I can't wait to see what you can do." The Sannin said as he wrapped his tongue around the blonde to free up his hands to perform seals. His fingertips glowed in an ethereal light as the kanji for the main five elements showed on his fingers. "Gogyou Fuin (Five Element Seal)!" With a quick jab the man's hand struck Naruto's abdomen and the boy let out a pained scream. His vision started to fade and he felt weightless. The last thing he could remember as he tried to stay conscious was the creepy man extending his neck and biting Suki on the neck.

"Suki..."

* * *

"So you like these precious arms of yours do you?"

"Gah! Let go you crazy bitch! Graghhhh!" _Crack!_

"Suki, please stop!"

Naruto opened his eyes slowly and groggily rolled himself into a sitting position. He had been awakened by screaming from some very disturbing dreams. He couldn't remember all of it, just something about a red glowing eye and a huge cage. Odd... Looking around he noticed that he was in some kind of tunnel made of wood. Naruto was interrupted from his observations as he heard someone scream at another person to stop.

"Suki stop! If you don't you'll rip his arms off!" Sakura screamed as she ran towards the crazed Uchiha. She had been taking care of Suki and Naruto after that crazy man had done something weird to both of them. She thanked Kami that they even got out of there alive. They should be dead after facing someone as strong as Orochimaru. While she was taking care of the two, a team of Oto Genin had dropped down on her and said they were going to fight the Uchiha. Using the best of her skills, Sakura tried to hold them off but was defeated. She was saved by Rock Lee just in time but after using an amazing move, he was left open to a counter-attack.

Just as the Oto ninja were going to go for the sleeping form of Suki, Team ten had come to the rescue. However, even with their help the other Genin had no hesitation about causing harm to their teammate if it also cause harm to Ino's body. Sakura was frantic as she tried to help out, but right when Lee's team came out of nowhere the boy with the Byakugan told the Sound team to look back towards the place Suki was laying. There in front of everyone was Suki with strange black markings sprouting from her left shoulder. Accompanying the flame-like tattoos was a dark and evil-feeling purple chakra that was strong enough to be seen. This repulsive chakra spiraled off the girl for a bit before she looked toward the sitting form of Sakura.

Suki had asked who had injured Sakura and when Sakura's eyes drifted to the Genin from sound Suki took action. The one boy from Oto with the spiky black hair had tried to blast the girl away using a powerful blast of sound that affected the air and sent a wave of it at Suki. When Zaku boasted about blowing her apart, Suki had appeared behind him in a burst of speed and beat him down to the ground. She wasn't done though for after Zaku was slammed to the ground she grabbed his arms and pulled it behind his back, stretching in a way they shouldn't be. As Suki pulled the boy's arms till they cracked Sakura had rushed forward and held Suki around her waist, screaming for her to stop.

This was the scene that Naruto came to as he wearily walked out of the canopy. As everyone's attention was set on Suki and what she was doing no one noticed Naruto till he stepped on a twig causing everyone to turn their heads to him.

"What the hell?" Naruto said rubbing his neck and looking around. "What's going on here? Hey Bushy Brows, what happened to you?" Naruto said noticing the injured form of Lee.

"Naruto, you're up! You're ok!" Sakura said relieved. Suki too was relieved as she let the boy in her grasp fall forward in a heap to groan in pain. The tattoo marks slowly receded while the disturbing purple chakra dissipated. Dosu looked around him and noticed that with all these Konoha, by himself he was no match.

"It seems we have been bested. I ask that you let me leave with my teammates in exchange for my scroll." Dosu said putting down his Earth scroll. Suki eyed him before inclining her head at him to leave. The boy picked up Kin and Zaku and bounded off. He didn't know why Orochimaru wanted him and his team to fight the Uchiha but he had said nothing about him giving her the Curse Seal.

Naruto watched the team leave while sitting down against a tree to relieve some of his grogginess. He may have just woken up but he still felt like crap for some reason. It felt like his chakra was fluctuating inside of him. If so, that can't be good. With shifty chakra he was afraid to try any jutsu. Especially the Reigan. Naruto heard a sound next to him and spotted Suki sitting down beside him. He looked to his side and noticed her disheveled appearance.

"You ok dobe?"

"Yeah fine I guess. You don't look to good yourself." Naruto replied.

"Better than you." Naruto grew a tick mark on his head but stayed silent. "So are you going to tell me and Sakura what happened back there, when you went bat-shit crazy back then?" Naruto looked confused for a moment before understanding dawned in his eyes. He looked away from the girl and scratched his head, clearly uncomfortable.

"Ah that, well I'll tell you about that after the exam. It's kind of a long story." Naruto said while chuckling nervously. Suki cocked her eyebrow but said nothing. He said he would tell her so that was all she needed to hear.

"Mm, fine. Well anyways, get up. We still have to get to the tower plus we still need another scroll."

"Why do we still need a scroll? Those other guys just gave us the one we need right?"

"Yeah but I don't know what happened to the other one. When I put theirs in my pouch I didn't find ours." Suki said as they walked back to Sakura. Sakura looked up to them as Ino fixed her hair after the last battle.

"Yeah but I still have ours remember. I put it in my pack after that one guy attacked us. See." Naruto replied pulling out the Heaven scroll.

"So we can head to the tower?" Sakura asked hopefully. Naruto flicked the scroll in the air and caught with a grin on his face.

"Let's get the hell out of this forest."

* * *

Team seven had reached the tower the next day with only a few issues. Thanks to a team from Amen, Naruto found out that he could still use Kage Bunshin to a degree and he could also still transform but he couldn't hold it like he normally could. Whatever that snake guy did to him was really messing him up. They also ran into Kabuto again and thanks to him they had made it to the tower a lot faster than just walking wildly through the forest.

Naruto looked around and noticed that many of the teams that began the second exam were no longer there. 'I wonder if they died' Naruto thought with a gulp. Turning his attention back to what was going on, he listened to the Sandaime explain why the Chunin exams were held. Naruto blanched when he heard that they weren't going on to the third exam just yet. When the Hokage was about to explain more a pillar of smoke appeared before the examinees.

"Please Hokage-sama allow me explain the next exam." the mysterious man said. The Hokage thought for a moment before agreeing and letting the man stand straight to face the crowd. He looked of average build with dark hair and the headband used as a bandana but what everyone noticed immediately was how sickly he looked. "My name is Gekou Hayate and I shall be the proctor for the preliminaries. I ask you all that if you wish to resign then now would be the best time."

Naruto looked in shock as he watched Kabuto leave. He thought that the older boy would be able to withstand the exam. Sadly not the blonde guessed. Hayate ushered everyone into the balconies that were set up as he motioned for everyone to look at the display board. "Due to the amount of people these prelims will decide who will go into the final exam. First up," everyone watched with baited breathe "Uchiha Suki vs. Akado Yoroi." Naruto looked at Suki and watched as she walked down the stairs. Before she hit the floor Naruto called out one more thing to her.

"You better kick his ass Suki."

* * *

**And with that the next Episode has been put out. I hope you all like it and please let me know all your thoughts. Now I must work on the next Episode. God give me the strength to finish everything.**

**Quick note I wanted to get this chapter out now and then send out all the edited ones. At the moment I have chapters 1 and 2. The rest will be sent out immediately. Thank you everyone! **


	8. How to Save a Fight

Ch.8 How to Save a Fight

**Yo everybody here's a real quick update for you all cause I know how much you all wanted to see the fights. I worked my fingers off to try and get this done and Tigee was deprived of sleep reading this over so we hope you like it! Please read and review cause I'd really love to hear your thoughts. Anyway on with the show! Tigee, Naruto hit it.**

**Tigee and Naruto pull up the curtain. **

**Intro Music ON: STFU by Girugamesh**

**Cover: Naruto standing on the arena floor with his body facing forward. His head is down and his right arm is out to his side with his fist clenched. His left hand is pulled to his chest in a half ram seal. Behind him is the giant statue of the ram handseal. Around the blonde boy smoke circles around his feet. Naruto's face is shaded thanks to his hair, but his sapphire blue eyes seem to glow from the shadow. **

* * *

Suki and Yoroi stared each other down as Hayate stood between them on the arena floor. The rest of the contestants all watched from above on the balcony with baited breath. This was the first round of the prelims and these two ninja would set the tone for the following battles. Hayate looked at the two teens, one older than the other and spoke.

"Are you two ready?" The two nodded. "Then Round one, ready, FIGHT!" Suki and Yoroi both jumped backwards and started to run around circling one another. Both suddenly rushed forward while pulling out a kunai. They clashed and traded blows and pushed against the other's weapon with all their might.

"Give up Uchiha. With my special ability I will beat you down with one punch." Yoroi said smirking under his face cloth. Suki scowled and brought her free hand up swipe at the boy's face. Yoroi dodged quickly and kicked Suki in the stomach causing her to skid back. Yoroi capitalized on the fallen form of the girl and jumped at her. An aura of chakra shrouded his hand and he reached to grab her head. Suki flipped backwards and let Yoroi hit nothing but the ground. Suki tried to channel chakra for a jutsu but a stab of pain hit her on her left shoulder causing her to grab the point of pain.

'Damn, it hurts to channel chakra. No wonder Kakashi-sensei told me not to use Sharingan.' Suki let go of her shoulder and stood up once more. Yoroi stood up and sped at Suki. Suki, who was still in pain, wasn't able to dodge and Yoroi was able to grab hold of the girl's head. He slammed the stunned Suki to the ground and she yelled out in pain. As she lay on the ground she felt as if her energy was being sapped from her. "M-my chakra?"

"That's right Uchiha," Yoroi cackled, "My Chakra Kyuin (Chakra Absorption) isn't a jutsu but a special ability! With it I'll suck you dry of all your chakra!" Naruto gripped the bars angrily as he watched his teammate's fight. If he could, the blonde would be down there beating the crap out of that Yoroi guy. No one messes with his friends. Naruto pounded on the rail and yelled loudly to try and get Suki moving.

* * *

"Come on Suki, get your ass in gear! You want to get to the finals; then get up! I bet I could do a way better job than you!" Suki grit her teeth and looked up at the blonde. If he wanted to see something then she'd show him. Pushing the boy off her with a burst of strength, she kicked herself up and spun around to kick Yoroi in the mouth. Yoroi rolled along the ground and then got up while spitting out blood from behind his veil.

"I guess all I can do for now is taijutsu but I can work with that." Suki said. "I've been working on this ever since my fight with Lee." Suki ran at Yoroi and ducked underneath one of his strikes that undoubtedly was going to be used to suck her chakra. Dropping low to the ground, Suki sent a vicious kick to the boy's face that sent him flying into the sky. With an impressive show of speed and skill Suki appeared right below Yoroi.

* * *

"That's, that's my Kage Buyō (Shadow Leaf Dance)." Lee said in awe. 'You truly are a genius aren't you Uchiha Suki.'

* * *

"I admit that I copied that first part." Suki stated as she poked Yoroi in the back. Just as she was about to start the seal that she'd received started to act up and the flame-like markings started to appear. "Gah!" The seal slowly grew on her left side and she was left in increasing pain. 'Not again!' she thought. As the pain reached an unbearable level the image of Naruto yelling at her to get up appeared in her mind. 'I won't let this thing take me over…I'll show them all. You better watch Naruto because I'll show you what I can do with my own power!' As Suki finished her thought the seal receded quickly and she felt as if a weight was lifted off her. "Now let's get started."

Suki pushed off of Yoroi's back and used it to bring a kick to his side. Yoroi blocked the kick and scoffed, saying, "You're no match for me." Suki then spun around and twisted her other leg making him believe she was coming in for another kick. He shifted his body to block but wasn't ready for her twisting around him and smashing her arm into his face making him start to descend.

"One more time!" Suki yelled as she slammed her other hand into the boy making him fall faster while letting her flip and positioning herself for one more hit. "I'm not done yet, here it is, Shishi Rendan (Lion's Barrage)!" Suki yelled out as she crushed Yoroi under a brutal falling kick to his stomach. The Genin screamed out in pain before passing out while Suki skid outward to the side and picked herself up.

"Winner is Uchiha Suki!" Hayate called. Suki smirked before falling to a knee and hissing in pain. Kakashi appeared in a cloud of smoke beside her and placed his hand on her shoulder. Naruto ran down stairs and ran to meet the two.

"Nice going teme!" Naruto said smiling. Naruto then noticed that Kakashi was holding onto the shoulder that that weird marking was coming from and looked up to his sensei. "Kakashi-sensei, what's going on?" Kakashi gave the boy an eye smile and patted his head.

"I'm just going to take Suki-chan here to the infirmary and make sure she gets checked up ok? Don't worry, I'll be back to see your match." Kakashi said cheerfully. Naruto grumbled a bit but conceded the need and watched as his teammate and sensei disappeared in a plume of smoke. Naruto rushed back up the stairs to make sure that he wouldn't get in trouble for being in the arena when the next contestants were called.

"For the next match of the Chuunin preliminaries," Hayate said, looking at the display board as it shuffled through names "Aburame Shino and Abumi Zaku please come down." The two ninja came down from the balcony and faced off with Hayate in between them. "Ready? Fight!"

Up in the balcony the remaining members of Team seven were standing next to the team from Suna and Team eight. Naruto, who was next to Kiba, heard the boy snort. "Shino is going to win easily." he said.

"Huh, why do you say that?" Naruto asked.

"You probably don't know about his family, but Shino's clan is special." Naruto tilted his head in confusion. "Let's just say you're in for a big surprise." Kiba chuckled. About then, Zaku ran through a clone, making the blonde boy guffaw in amazement.

"Holy crap he's made of bugs!"

Kurenai, Team eights black haired beauty of a sensei laughed at Naruto's expression. "That is what could be classified as the Aburame kekkei genkai. The clansmen allow the bugs to live in their bodies and survive off their chakra." the red-eyed sensei said. "But in return their bodies are changed and capable of many things." Naruto looked on in awe as the Zaku boy was defeated entirely when it was shown that Shino had ordered his bugs to plug the holes in Zaku's arms when the boy revealed he could use both arms. In dire pain, Zaku attempted a last ditch attack anyways, hoping to overpower the bug-clog. It proved to be a horrid mistake as both of the boy's arms literally exploded off of his body. The match was ended quickly and the Oto Genin was carted off to the infirmary.

"That was freaky." Sakura said shivering. The thought of that many bugs all over her body made her shudder. As Shino walked calmly up the stairs Naruto waved over at him.

"Yo Shino, that was an awesome match! I never knew you could do all that cool stuff with your bugs." Naruto called out. Shino tilted his head curiously but nodded gratefully.

"I thank you for the compliment Naruto-san. My bugs did a most excellent job but I could have beaten him easily. How do I know this, it is because my opponent was too boastful." The glasses wearing boy said. Naruto looked at him and blinked before turning back to the arena.

"Okay...well anyways I hope I'm next! I can't wait to get some action in!" Naruto yelled.

"Well, let's hope you do good Naruto." a voice said from behind the blonde. Naruto jumped in fright and had to keep a scream from escaping his lips. Behind him stood Kakashi with his eye curved. He was most likely smiling at his student.

"God dammit Kakashi-sensei! You scared the crap out of me." Naruto said holding his heart. Kakashi just chuckled to himself and motioned for his two Genin to look at the board. The board flashed again and Naruto watched as that boy in the pointed-ear suit came down followed by Kabuto's other teammate. Hayate brought down his hand and the two ninja ran at each other.

Kankuro and Misumi traded blows before Naruto saw the Kankuro guy pull the other guy into a headlock. He was surprised when the man wormed his way out of the hold. Naruto scoffed when the older boy said that his body is that of rubber and indestructible. "Tch, I'd show him a real rubber move." Naruto said. Sakura had to admit that compared to her blonde companions abilities, this guy's weren't as amazing. The match ended gruesomely when it was revealed that the real Kankuro was inside the wrap that was on the back of his puppet. The wooden puppet he called Karasu used its four arms to grab a hold of Misumi and squeezed the boy till a loud crack was heard. Kankuro was immediately called the winner.

"Wow I didn't know that that guy was so strong." Sakura said. Naruto had to agree with her. The first time they had met him they didn't think he was this good. Were all the people from that Suna team this strong? The next names popped up on the screen and read 'Haruno Sakura vs. Yamanaka Ino.'

The two girls looked at one another from the balcony and narrowed their eyes. This would be a battle long awaited between the two of them. When they were both in the arena, Hayate called the match and jumped away.

"So forehead it looks like it comes down to this." Ino said.

"We knew we would have to fight Ino-pig. I'm just glad I get to do it in front of all these people." Sakura replied. Naruto leaned forward and rested his arms on the rail.

"So do you think she can win Kaka-sensei?" Kakashi hummed in thought before smiling down at the boy.

"I think she will do just fine." Naruto looked at the man before nodding and looking back to the ground to see both girls with their headbands actually on their heads and Ino cutting off a part of her ponytail and throwing it on the ground.

"What did I miss?" Naruto said confused. Back down on the floor Sakura and Ino were engaged in a fierce round of taijutsu. Sakura was thinking that if she didn't have Kakashi put her through all that physical conditioning she might not have been able to keep up with Ino. She was stronger than Ino, the bruises evidence to that, but the blonde haired girl was faster and made up for strength with flexibility and surprising kicks that really hurt. Naruto was now fully into the fight and had to marvel at the fact that the two girls could actually fight. He knew Sakura was trained further in Nami but Ino's skill was shocking. 'I didn't know that legs could stretch that far.' Naruto thought, blushing a bit.

Although the fight between the girls was interesting, Naruto was a little put out with how it was going. Ino had astonished the audience with an amazing feat of chakra control and sent her chakra through the strands of her hair to capture Sakura. She then used her Shintenshin no jutsu (Mind body switch jutsu). "What happened?" Naruto asked, not knowing what the Shintenshin was.

"Ino used her jutsu to go into Sakura's mind." Shikamaru said as Ino's body slumped forward. Inside Sakura, Ino smirked and readied her plan. She was just about to raise her hand to surrender when Naruto's voice called out Sakura's name.

"Sakura-chan come on, you can do it! Remember all the work you did to become strong!" Naruto exclaimed. Ino looked up to the boy and scoffed. Like that loud mouth could make a difference. Suddenly, Ino felt a stir in the body she was in and she was pulled into a dark space. In the area was Sakura but above her was an enormous version of the girl, with the words 'inner' in kanji written on her forehead.

"What the hell is this?"

"Get out of my mind Ino-pig!" Sakura and the giant version of her yelled. Ino screamed and released her jutsu, springing back inside her body to the surprise of her team.

"What the heck was that forehead?" Ino panted.

"Heh, every girl has to have some inner strength; mine just has some attitude." Sakura breathed out. Both were on their last leg so the two girls decided to go for an all-out attack. The result, both were knocked out by a punch to the head.

Naruto looked on in disbelief while Kakashi shook his head. 'Well she tried her best and I'm proud of how far she came.' he thought as he and Asuma picked up their students.

"Next round is Sabaku no Temari vs. Tenten." Both girls jumped off the ledge and landed perfectly on the ground.

"I'll give you one chance to give up." Temari said. Tenten growled in response and pulled out a scroll.

"Don't act so cocky sand girl." Tenten ran her hand over the scroll and a barrage of weapons flew out. Temari scoffed and opened her fan slightly and blew away the weapons. Tenten looked confused before shaking off her confusion and pulling out a couple more scrolls. A puff of smoke later and another round of even more weapons flew at Temari. Temari shook her head and opened her fan a little more and swung it slightly. A burst of wind came forward and rendered the weapons useless.

"What's going on?" Naruto asked.

"She's using wind to neutralize the weapons." Kakashi answered.

"You can do that?"

"Yes you can, just watch." Kakashi pointed back down to the floor where Tenten was kneeling down and holding two scrolls.

"Shoshoryu (Twin Rising Dragons)!" The scrolls exploded into a cloud of smoke before spiraling into the air. The spiraling smoke took the form of two dragons before reverting back into scrolls with Tenten between them. She then pulled out a multitude of weapons and sent them at Temari. The blonde sighed and opened her fan fully while staring at the airborne Tenten.

"Alright that's enough," Temari swung the huge fan upwards and a gale flew from the fan upwards "Kamaitachi no jutsu (Sickle Weasel jutsu)!" The windstorm blasted all the weapons away and plunged the bun haired girl into a tornado. The girl screamed in pain and when the wind died down she plummeted to the ground where she was caught onto the end of the other girl's giant fan. Naruto winced in sympathy as he heard the resulting cracking sound. He sure hoped that bun-haired girl was ok. When Temari threw Tenten off her fan, he had to admit that the gesture wasn't really needed. Lee's outrage was more than justified in his opinion.

After Lee took his teammate back up into the stands Hayate looked back to the board. "Tsuchi Kin and Nara Shikamaru come down."

"Ah man, why do I have to fight a girl?" Shikamaru bemoaned.

"Shut up you lazy ass! Get down there and kick her butt Shikamaru!" Ino ordered now up and about. Shikamaru grumbled as he walked down the stairs. Naruto snickered to himself as the pineapple-haired boy faced a dark-haired girl from Sound. The match started and Kin threw a round of senbon at Shikamaru as soon as Hayate jumped away. Shikamaru dodged quickly to the side and then ran at Kin. Suddenly he heard a ringing of bells and he dropped to the ground.

'What's going on?' Shikamaru thought as a wave of dizziness hit the boy. He shakily got up and looked at Kin. Instead of one Sound Genin there were three and they were moving around erratically.

"With my bells, my genjutsu will hit you no matter what." Kin called out smirking. Naruto looked down in confusion while his childhood ditching buddy was on his knees.

"Oi Shikamaru, wake up!" Shikamaru looked up to the blonde and gave the boy a glare. If he could get up he would. A flash from the corner of his eye caught his attention and he grinned. He'd have to thank that blonde idiot for making him look at him. Naruto chuckled as he settled down and watched Shikamaru use Kin's wires to get his Kage Mane no jutsu (Shadow Imitation jutsu) to hit. The boy then used the wall behind her to knock her out, tricking her into believing that they were going to hit one another with shuriken.

"Man that was kind of lame," Naruto said "I can't believe he knocked her out with the wall. Hope she doesn't get brain damage." Kakashi looked at his student oddly.

"Why do you say that, Naruto?"

"She's pretty cute," Naruto grinned "in fact, all the girls here are cute hehe." Kakashi palmed his face and shook his head. You can't stop teenagers and their hormones. "But I really hope I get to fight soon! I mean, I've been waiting forever!" The blonde whined. That made Kakashi chuckle. Now that was the normal Naruto he knew. A noise from behind them made the two look back. Sakura was waking up and Ino had walked from her team to talk to her.

"W-what happened?" Sakura said as she was helped up by Naruto. "I must have lost huh?"

"No, we both lost." Ino's comment made Sakura lift her head in shock. "Looks like we'll have to have a rematch forehead." Sakura smiled and was about retort when Hayate's announcement cut her off.

"Next round, Uzumaki Naruto vs. Inuzuka Kiba!"

"Yes! I'm finally up!"

"Yahoo! Looks like we got an easy win, eh Akamaru?" Naruto and Kiba both ran down to the arena floor and stood facing the other. Hayate called the match and jumped back to wait for the match.

"Alright this will be fast." Kiba said smirking and Akamaru barking in agreement. Naruto snorted and opened his arms.

"Whatever dog-boy, come on I'll give you a free shot." Kiba shook his head and dropped low.

"Your funeral idiot! Shikyaku no jutsu (Beast Mimicry jutsu)!" Kiba dropped down like the dog he carried and blurred forward. Naruto flew back as the beast-like boy slammed his elbow into the blonde's stomach. Naruto let out a loud grunt of pain and rolled over and stopped on his back.

"Wow that was fast."

"What a lame fight."

"Man that Naruto sure is weak." Those were some of the things Naruto heard as he pushed himself back up. The laughing of Kiba as he told the proctor to call the fight really got on his nerves. Kiba just had to hit in _that_ spot.

"Dammit Kiba you just had to hit me where _he_ hit me." Naruto grit out while rubbing his stomach. Orochimaru had to suppress a chuckle at that; however, the Hokage caught the slight movement from the disguised Sannin. What did the man do to the boy?

"Oh so the dobe is able to get up?" Kiba laughed. Naruto flicked him off and stood up straight.

"I am not giving up until I become Hokage."

"Ha! You couldn't even do the Henge properly by the time we graduated from the Academy. I bet you still can't do it!" Sakura let out a loud laugh that caused people to look at her but she waved off the attention. "What makes you think you can become the village leader?" Kiba said. "In fact, I'll become Hokage for you!" Naruto growled and sank back into a fighting stance.

"Bring it! And you can bring your dog too cause you're going to need it!" Kiba scowled and called Akamaru. He then grabbed a round of shuriken and threw them at the blonde. Naruto ducked low and ran at Kiba. 'I can't use Reigan right now and I can only use my transformations for a limited time. I'm ok with my clones but I don't know if I can make a lot of them right now. I'm still exhausted from whatever it is that guy did to me.' Naruto thought. 'Well let's hope for the best.' Naruto threw a fast punch at Kiba who dodged to the side and swiped at the blonde with his claws. Naruto dodged and then spun on his heel to throw his leg at the other boy's head. Kiba sank to the ground then sent Akamaru to attack Naruto. Naruto's eyes widened and he had to roll to the side to avoid the dog's sharp teeth.

"Alright Akamaru go get him!" Kiba said, throwing down a smoke bomb. Naruto cursed and looked around wildly. The smoke was too thick for anyone to see anything, even the people in the balcony. Just as Naruto turned his head a blob of white crossed his vision. There was Akamaru coming from the smoke ready to bite him. Naruto exclaimed in shock and quickly made a clone that grabbed the dog before it could bite him.

Naruto let out a breath and looked at the clone that was holding the dog. "Oi Ichi, that you?" The clone nodded and Naruto walked forward. "Ok, well hold the pup while I start my plan. Sorry Akamaru, but I'm not trying to hurt you." Naruto apologized. Naruto poked the dog quickly with a kunai, just grazing the skin, so he had some of the dog's blood. He wiped it on his forehead and made another clone. "You go lay down over there and Ichi you hide in the corner of the smoke." Naruto ordered as he made a handsign and transformed into Akamaru. He didn't know if he completely copied the smell of something, but Akamaru's blood should be able to fool Kiba's nose.

The smoke cleared slowly and Naruto transformed into a copy of Akamaru and sat in front of his clone. Kiba came forward just as the smoke cleared a little to congratulate his dog. Naruto ran forward and when he was close enough he bit into the dark-haired boy's arm. Kiba yelled loudly in pain and Naruto flew back and turned back to normal in a cloud of smoke.

"Ugh, you taste like dog! Why the hell did I even do that?" Naruto yelled.

"What the hell did you do to Akamaru?" Kiba roared.

"Relax man, he's over there." Naruto said, pointing to Ichi who was holding on to Akamaru. Kiba growled at Naruto because he smelled his dog's blood on the blonde. But looking at the animal, found no noticeable injury. The people in the crowd were muttering to one another at the fact that Naruto, the known dead last, was able to make real corporeal clones.

"Looks like we have to get serious eh Akamaru." Kiba said while pulling out a pill. He flicked the pill at Akamaru who swallowed it. His fur turned a dark red and the dog started to grow more feral-looking. Akamaru destroyed Ichi and the other clone and was instantly by his master's side.

"Holy crap! What did you do, dope him?" Kiba said nothing and had Akamaru jump on his back.

"Ninpo: Juujin Bunshin (Man Beast clone)!" In a puff of smoke there were two Kibas instead of Kiba and Akamaru, and both 'boys' looked like wild beasts. Naruto gulped and backed away. The two Kibas ran at Naruto and started to spin at high speeds till they were nothing but tornadoes of claws. "Gatsuuga (Dual Piercing Fang)!" The destructive human cyclones spun around towards the stunned Naruto and crashed into the boy. Naruto screamed out in pain and flew high into the sky before landing with a loud thud.

"Naruto!" Sakura yelled in worry. Naruto coughed out some blood and pulled himself up. That last move had hurt. The spinning motion of the two made dodging that attack really difficult. Naruto had to think of something to gain the upper hand; if only he was at full power. Reigan was out so he couldn't take the two out at long distance without touching them. If he tried Gomu Gomu no Pistoru then he might be able to hit the two, but the whirling motion might just deflect his punch. He needed something to stop those guys. He might have an idea but it was really risky.

Naruto had no time to think about his decision as he saw Kiba and Akamaru in Kiba's form both start to spin towards him again. "Oh man I hope this works." Naruto said as jumped into the air. The blonde was lucky to dodge one of the tornadoes but unfortunately the other was still heading right for him. Naruto quickly summoned a couple of clones in front of him and waited till the swirl of claws was a little closer.

"What's Naruto doing Kakashi-sensei? He knows his clones will just be torn apart right?" Sakura asked.

"Just wait Sakura. I'm sure he has a plan." Kakashi said looking up at his charge. Just on cue Naruto's clones transformed right before the Gatsuuga hit. A loud and dull clang was heard and as the smoke wafted away from the clones, everyone could see that two metal walls had replaced what were once clones. When the Kiba that tried to hit Naruto ran into them, he had smashed straight into the hard surface and wasn't able to pierce through the hard metal. The metal plates fell to the ground with a crash and dented the floor before the chakra in the clones ran out and both popped away in a puff of smoke.

"Akamaru!" Kiba screamed out. Naruto landed on the ground and saw the Kiba that had gone for him was actually the dog. The white animal had knocked itself out from the head-on collision but Naruto was sure the puppy was alright.

"Sorry Kiba. I was hoping that it was you." Naruto said as he ran at the distracted boy. "Kage Bunshin no jutsu!" Four clones appeared in front of Naruto and surrounded Kiba who growled at them all. Naruto, who was behind one of his clones but still within eyesight of Kiba grinned. "Thanks to Lee I have the perfect move to finish this match and make sure you stay down."

"You hurt Akamaru and decided to show yourself." Kiba said as he dropped low again. "How stupid are you? I'll rip you and these clones to pieces!" Naruto only chuckled and pointed up. Kiba who was in a battle high, quickly looked as did many of the other people. When Kiba saw nothing he turned his head back only to be blind-sighted by a punch from the clone in front of him.

"U-." it said as the original used its back as springboard. While somersaulting in the air he quickly transformed his right arm and looked down to see three of his clones slide at the stunned Kiba and send him up with kicks similar to Lee's, each yelling out a syllable of his name.

"Zu-."

"Ma-."

"Ki-."

Kiba cried out in pain and flew up to the original who smirked. Naruto threw his arm backwards but instead of just letting it go he twisted his arm around as it flew, the arm twisting from the wrist down.

"What the hell is that?" Ino yelled out. Every person on the balcony was looking on in shock at the rising and twisting arm as it stretched higher. Even the Hokage almost dropped his pipe. He had heard of Naruto's jutsu but seeing it first hand was something else. Orochimaru was grinning madly as he watched the boy.

'So it wasn't the fox that gave the boy those strange attacks. Oh Naruto-kun, you grow more interesting by the minute' the snake Sannin thought.

"Raifuru Rendan (Uzumaki Rifle Barrage)!" Naruto yelled as he brought his fist back down towards the stunned Kiba. His arm started to unwind as it flew forward, spinning at amazing speeds. The punch hit Kiba and once it touched the boy he started to spin with Naruto's fist. He was then sent spiraling down towards the ground like a rocket. His body hit the floor with such force that he bounced off the cement before landing once again on the ground while coughing out blood.

There was a moment of silence as Naruto landed softly on the ground and changed his arm back to normal, his clones disappearing also. "Winner, Uzumaki Naruto!" Hayate called out between coughs. That was very interesting. Naruto grinned and whooped as he ran up the stairs. Once he got to the top he received a wave of stares that he only chuckled at.

"That was quite the interesting win Naruto." Kakashi said when Naruto walked next to him. "I have to say, the use of your special transformation to block Kiba's attack and then a new move to boot, was quite the surprise." Naruto scratched his head in embarrassment. Naruto heard shuffling behind him and turned around to see Hinata behind him.

"N-Naruto-kun here is s-some medicine." The girl said, handing the boy a small container. Naruto took it curiously and placed some on one of his cuts. He was shocked to see the cut begin healing immediately.

"Wow, thanks Hinata! This stuff works great." Naruto said while rubbing more on his wounds. Hinata blushed and mumbled 'you're welcome' before rushing off to give Kiba some medicine. Naruto hummed as he put more salve on his wound. Hinata was a nice girl. Hopefully she'd do well in her match.

* * *

"I'm going to kick your ass. Remember that you stuck up bastard." Neji scoffed as he walked up to the balcony. The blonde idiot can say whatever he wants. Fate will dictate the boy a loser in the end. Naruto walked to his spot on the railing and watched the next match, hoping that a good fight would make him feel better. He was wrong. Lee's battle was amazing. It was one of the most extraordinary fights he had ever seen. But what that Gaara did to the boy made Naruto growl and grip the rail. Oh yes, that Gaara just made his list right next to Neji.

Once Lee was carted away it was Dosu and Chouji's turn to fight. The battle was more or less boring after its predecessor. After everyone was done the remaining contestants were called to the floor. Everyone picked a slip of paper from a box, Kakashi taking one for Suki, and looked at the numbers printed on them. The next matches were set. It was Naruto and Neji in the first round, Gaara and Dosu in the second, Kankuro and Shino after, and Shikamaru versing Temari last. Suki would be fighting the winner of Gaara and Dosu's match seeing as she was the odd one out.

After the roster was set the Hokage announced a one month period to train. Naruto grinned at this. He would show that Hyuuga jerk just what happens when you belittle people. Once everyone was dismissed Naruto went straight home to rest. Tomorrow he would ask Kakashi to train him.

* * *

Naruto glared at his sensei as the two stood in the lobby of the hospital. "So you can't train me?" Naruto asked, his temper rising. Kakashi sighed. He knew this would happen, but he needed to train Suki. He had just heard that the Sound boy had been found dead on the roof of a building. That meant that Suki would be facing Gaara.

"I'm sorry Naruto, but I need to train Suki. She will almost certainly be facing Gaara for the finals and we both know that that boy could kill her." Naruto grumbled but agreed. That Gaara dude was insane.

"But who's going to train me?"

"Don't worry Naruto I have just the person to train you." Kakashi said smiling. Behind Naruto a puff of smoke appeared, causing him to turn around. Once the smoke blew away Naruto was standing there, looking at Ebisu.

"You! You're training me? But I beat you with my-" Naruto was cut off as Ebisu quickly grabbed him and held his mouth.

"You stay quiet and I'll treat you to ramen." Ebisu hissed. Naruto stared at the man before shrugging. If it meant free ramen then hey who cares. Kakashi looked at the two confused before shrugging and leaving the two to their training.

'Good luck Naruto and I'm sorry I couldn't train you,' Kakashi thought.

After Ebisu and Naruto stopped by Ichiraku's for a quick bowel of ramen, the boy found himself at the village hot springs. "So why are we here?" Naruto asked.

Ebisu smirked and shifted his glasses. "Well my young charge, I'm here to teach you better chakra control." Naruto tilted his head in confusion and the man in front of him decided to elaborate. "We are here so I can teach you how to walk on water using chakra."

"I already know how to do that."

"Oh really, then why don't you show me?" Naruto scoffed and gathered his chakra before stepping onto the steaming water. His feet stayed for a few minutes before he plummeted into the water. He then screamed in pain and quickly swam out of the water where his teacher was smirking at him. "So you can do this?"

"Shut it! I could do this and I did this back in Nami. Something must be messing with my chakra." Naruto grit out as he picked himself up. "I bet it has something to do with that snake-guy…hey, what's that guy doing Ebisu-sensei?" Naruto said cutting himself off and pointing to the wall of the women's hot springs. Ebisu tilted his head and looked behind his shoulder to see what Naruto was looking at. There at the wall was a large man with a large mane of spiky white hair with an enormous scroll on his back giggling.

"What a deplorable act!" Ebisu yelled blushing. Naruto peered at the man and clearly saw the blush. No matter what this guy said he was still a closet pervert. "I will stop this. Watch, Naruto as I take care of this man!" Ebisu ran at the man with a loud cry and the man turned around.

"Man you really need to shut up." the man's deep voice rang out as he looked at the approaching ninja. Suddenly, a cloud of smoke obscured Naruto's vision and when it cleared the man was now standing on a very large frog. The amphibian opened its mouth and a tongue shot out and knocked Ebisu out. Naruto sighed and palmed his face. This guy was embarrassing. The strange white-haired man laughed loudly while Naruto walked over and poked the unconscious Ebisu.

"Ya know, you really didn't have to do that." Naruto said, scratching his head. "I was just going to tell him the reason why I couldn't do the water walking thing was because that snake guy's hit did something to me. Think his name was Orachimaro or something." Naruto sighed. "Now what am I going to do for the Chuunin exam finals." Naruto noticed that the man's laughing had stopped and the boy looked at him to see that he was staring at him. "Can I help you?"

"Kid, what was it you were trying to do again?"

"I'm trying to RELEARN the water walking exercise because I apparently can't do it anymore. Why are you still on your frog?"

"It's a toad brat." the man grumbled. "Now, you said this guy hit you where?" Naruto pointed to his stomach.

"He lifted my shirt then slammed some kind of jutsu into my stomach." The man looked at Naruto strangely before jumping off his toad and squatting down to the boy's level, making Naruto realize that the guy was freaking tall.

"Kid I'm going to ask you to trust me on this and listen to what I'm telling you."

"Uh huh and why should I do that?"

"Cause I know who did that technique on you, by the way it's Orochimaru, and I know how to reverse it. He did something to your seal, and don't worry I don't care about your burden" Naruto perked up after hearing this. Someone who wasn't prejudice and could help, right on. "Lift up your shirt a bit and channel chakra." Naruto did as he was told and looked down to see the telltale seal that held the Kyuubi. Once that appeared, however, five other seals appeared around the seal that Naruto didn't remember seeing before. The man held his hand behind his back before holding it up to show that his fingertips were now encased in chakra. "Sorry if this hurts brat, Gogyō Kaiin (Five Element Unseal)!" Naruto felt a great pressure on his abdomen that threw him onto the ground. He got up coughing and glared at the man.

"What the hell? That hurt like a mother-"

"Try walking on the water now." Naruto's curse was cut off as the mystery man motioned towards the hot springs. Naruto cautiously stepped onto the water surface and found that he had no trouble at all.

"Wow it works! Thanks mister. By the way," Naruto said as he walked back to the edge, "my name's Uzumaki Naruto." The man looked shocked for a second before smiling widely at the boy.

"Well my boy today is your lucky day for I have decided to train you!"

"Uh, who are you anyways?"

The man flipped back onto his toad and did a little dance while saying, "I am the great master of seals and the all-powerful sage. I am the man that men envy and women swoon over! I am the great Jiraiya!" Jiraiya finished as he stuck his hand out in front of him in a dramatic pose.

"...Was that really necessary?"

* * *

Jiraiya brought Naruto to a river the next day. After the man's strange little introduction the two had decided to meet up early the next morning at Ichiraku's. After a quick meal Jiraiya led Naruto to the river and the two stood in front of the water.

"So Naruto its time for you to show me what you can do, that way I know what I can teach you." Jiraiya told the boy. Naruto scratched his head.

"Well I guess it does give me a chance to see if my techniques work better now that I don't have that extra seal on my stomach." Naruto thought for a moment, trying to decide what to test before coming to a conclusion. Naruto pulled his hand into an L shape and then pointed it at one of the surrounding trees. Jiraiya looked at the boy like he was crazy but was quite shocked to see a small orb of chakra appear over Naruto's pointer finger. Naruto then grasped his wrist with his other hand and narrowed his eyes. "Reigan!" A pretty good sized orb of chakra blasted from Naruto's finger and the recoil caused Naruto's arm to pop up. The bullet of energy zoomed forth and impacted the tree trunk causing a sizable dent that impressed Jiraiya.

"Well looks like I can do that again." Naruto said smiling.

"Now that was a surprise." said Jiraiya as he looked at the impact mark. "So then," he looked back "let's see what else you can do." Jiraiya said getting into a fighting stance. A spar would do nicely to evaluate the kid's skills. Naruto could only smile and place his hands in a seal. This would be fun.

Naruto ran at the man quickly transforming his arm and jumping at Jiraiya. He stretched his arm back and threw it at Jiraiya to the man's great disbelief. Though, being a Sannin he dodged quickly and grabbed hold of the arm noticing its strange likeness to rubber. Naruto looked at Jiraiya in confusion before the breath was taken from him as Jiraiya swung the boy off his feet and slammed him onto the ground. Naruto cried out in pain and his arm snapped back.

"That…was new." Naruto groaned out as he picked himself up from the crater. Naruto quickly summoned a dozen Kage Bunshin to his side and had them charge Jiraiya. The Sannin sighed and began to dodge the clones while dispelling the few that came too close. He suddenly dodged to one side. Repeating the same trick he used last time by grabbing a stretching arm that came for him out of nowhere, Jiraiya then swung the Naruto he held around and around, dispelling any clone he hit. Jiraiya let go of who he was holding and the Naruto slammed into a tree before going up in a cloud of smoke, signifying a clone. Jiraiya shook his head. The boy had a few surprising attacks but he didn't fight too well. That was when the last clones that had survived all dispelled, creating a smoke screen.

Feet smacked against the dirt and Jiraiya turned to the sound to see Naruto running at him with his arm pulled back and twisting around behind him. "I've got to admit for a pervy old dude you're way strong. But let's see you take one of my strongest attacks!" Naruto yelled. "Gomu Gomu no Raifuru (Gum Gum Rifle)!" Naruto smashed his fist into Jiraiya's stomach and the man was sent spinning away. Jiraiya grunted in pain as he spun and placed his hand to the ground, stopping his momentum with a bit of chakra.

"Well that hurt. Let's stop here Naruto." Jiraiya said, holding his other hand up. That punch sent him spinning away in a very familiar way. Though it was nowhere near as powerful as the technique he was thinking of it still hurt quite a bit. Maybe the boy's fighting skills weren't so bad after all.

"So Ero-Sennin, what are going to teach me?" Naruto asked, calling Jiraiya the name he came up with yesterday. Jiraiya growled and smacked the boy over the head.

"Quit calling me that and I'll be teaching you a very advanced skill. Have you ever heard of the Kuchiyose no jutsu (Summoning jutsu)?" Naruto shook his head and Jiraiya pulled the large scroll from his back. "Well the Summoning technique is a jutsu in where you summon an animal from the Summon world to ours where they can help you. You need to have signed the contract to summon an animal or the consequences could be dire. I have decided that since I am such a wonderful person I'd let you sign the Toad contract."

"Toads?"

"Hey, I wouldn't insult them. The Toads are extremely strong summons. Here, just sign your name on the scroll and I'll show you how to summon." Naruto shrugged and bit his thumb and signed his name on one of the blank slots. The other slots held names but almost all of them that he could see were smudged off. After signing and placing a bloody handprint on the scroll Naruto watched Jiraiya roll up the scroll and return it to his back. "Now watch," Jiraiya said slowly doing the boar, dog, bird, monkey, and ram seals so Naruto could see "Kuchiyose no jutsu!" A cloud of smoke blew forth and Jiraiya was once again on the toad that Naruto first saw him on.

"So just do those seals and channel chakra?"

"As much chakra as you possibly can kid. This is a strong jutsu." Naruto gathered as much chakra as he could and went through the seals.

"Kuchiyose no jutsu!" An array of seals expanded from the point of contact that Naruto's hand made and his vision was then obscured by the customary smoke accompanying the technique. When the smoke died down a small orange toad was looking up at the blonde wearing a blue vest.

"Yo, got any candy?" the toad asked. Naruto stared at the toad before slowly standing straight and looking at Jiraiya.

"It can talk..."

"Well of course it can talk. Summons are intelligent creatures." Jiraiya said. 'He summoned a real toad on his first try! I was expecting a tadpole...you are an interesting kid Naruto.'

"Ok, just wanted to make sure I wasn't going crazy." Naruto squatted back down and looked at the toad. "Sorry but I don't have candy. I know where to get some though." Naruto said. The toad seemed to smile and hopped up onto Naruto's head.

"Alright aniki let's get some candy. By the way, I'm Gamakichi." Naruto stood back up with Gamakichi on his head and looked at Jiraiya.

"So can I go get some lunch and this guy some candy Ero-Sennin?"

"Yeah, go ahead brat we are done for the day. I got somewhere to go so we'll continue this tomorrow." Jiraiya replied before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

"I should really learn how to do that."

* * *

Naruto walked through Konoha looking for the place that sold candy. As he walked through the village Gamakichi sat on his head and looked at all the passing villagers. Naruto noticed that like all other times the villagers were ignoring him. It really sucked being the host for the Kyuubi.

"So this is Konohagakure no Sato huh. Quiet isn't it aniki?"

"Yeah...it's nice Kichi. I wanna be Hokage, did you know that?" Naruto chuckled. "When I win these exams everyone's going to know that I'm not the dead last that they all think." Naruto held his fist in front of him and clenched it. "I'll show them that I've changed, gotten stronger."

"Well that's all well and good, but I'm starving aniki." Naruto grumbled and headed down a street while meandering through the crowd. Suddenly a flash of yellow blurred across his peripherals and something crashed into him, causing Gamakichi to hop off Naruto's head.

"Ouch! What the hell? Get off!"

"Eek! Stop holding onto me pervert!" The villagers looked on in amusement at the two young teens entangled on the ground. Naruto finally got the person off him and looked to see Ino struggling to stand up.

"Ino?" Said girl looked up and glared at Naruto.

"Naruto you idiot, watch where you're going!"

"Hey, you're the one who ran into me!" Ino and Naruto started to argue while Gamakichi watched. Growing tired of their senseless squabbling, the toad hopped back on Naruto's head and Ino stopped her yelling and let out small shriek.

"Naruto, there's a frog on you! Don't move, I'll try to get it off." Naruto looked at Ino confused before giving an 'oh' in realization.

"It's ok Ino. This is Gamakichi, my first toad summon." Naruto said, smiling. Ino looked shocked for a moment after the boy said that. Summoning was a very advanced skill. She knew that her dad could summon falcons, but it was mainly Jounin that were able to. Her dad only learned to summon because he didn't trust those phones; they wouldn't connect at times. To be able to summon was impressive and for the dead last of her class to be able to use that kind of jutsu was amazing. She still thought the toad was a bit gross though.

"Hey Ino, do you know where I can find some candy?" Naruto asked, breaking the girl from her thoughts. Ino thought for a moment before looking at where they were. The civilians that were watching them had all gone about their business again so she had to see around people to determine their location.

"Well there should be a well-known sweet shop further down the road. Why do you need to know?"

"Alright, finally some snacks!" Gamakichi said surprising Ino again before she remembered that he was a summon. She still couldn't wrap her mind around the fact that Naruto could summon.

"Right then, let's get going Kichi. Thanks Ino, see ya." Naruto said.

Ino watched the boy go while thinking. Naruto showed techniques that she had never seen a ninja do. The only time she had ever seen anything like what he did was when she would have some time to watch TV while eating. Maybe tailing the other blonde would be a good idea. Her inner gossip was curious.

"Hey Naruto, wait. I'll come with you. Knowing you, you'd probably get lost." Ino said smirking. Naruto looked back in disbelief before shrugging. Who was he to stop someone on their time off?

The two continued down the road in silence before Naruto decided to start a conversation.

"So what have you been doing for the month off?"

Ino huffed and crossed her arms. "Since forehead beat me I had to split my time between watching my family's shop and my dad training me." Naruto looked surprised. He would have never guessed the girl would train. But then again it was probably her father's idea. "Anyways, I have a question for you."

"Shoot."

"What were those weird techniques you did in the prelims? You know the ones you did against Kiba." Naruto nodded his head and put a hand up to his chin. How to describe what he did, hmmm.

"Well it's like this; do you remember the basic jutsus they taught us in the Academy?" Ino nodded her head. "Well Henge no jutsu is different for me. Instead of a layer of chakra that is an illusion, mine is completely real. I don't know the full extent of what I can do yet but I'm going to experiment further."

"Wait so, when your clones, which I still can't believe were solid, transformed into those metal slabs, they were actually metal?" Naruto nodded. "B-but that should be impossible!"

Naruto laughed. "Nothing is impossible when it comes to Uzumaki Naruto, the future Hokage."

Naruto said it as he lifted his head just right so the sun was behind him. Ino stared at the boy before shaking her head vigorously. He may have looked cool like that but he was still Naruto.

As the two Genin plus toad walked around a corner they heard the sound of yelling coming from one of the buildings. It was a brown two story building made out of the normal concrete that all buildings in Konoha were made of, with windows scattered around the walls. It looked very inconspicuous and blended right into the other buildings except for one blinding detail. It had a huge sign depicting a giant piece of wrapped candy with a katana and kunai stabbed through it in an 'X'. The villagers were looking at the building as they passed by it but stayed away because the yelling was escalating to very high levels.

"I'm telling you I didn't do it!"

"Well if you didn't leave your crap all over the damn floor then this wouldn't have happened!"

"Well excuse me for being too busy to pick up a few stray items!"

Naruto and Ino looked at each warily and walked around the building as fast as possible when one of the voices screamed so loud that Naruto's ears started to ring.

"I'll show you how busy I can be too!" the voice, most likely a girl due to the pitch, screamed. There was a crash above Naruto and Ino and then something flew out of the broken window high into the sky, causing the two to cover themselves to protect against the broken glass. It flew up until it was speck before careening back down at alarming speeds. Naruto looked up just in time to see the item speed towards him.

"Naruto look out!" Gamakichi quickly jumped from Naruto's head just when the item smashed into it. "Naruto!" Ino's scream alerted the people in the building and a form shot out of the door. Naruto groaned as he sat up and picked up the item off his chest.

What had hit him was a pair of old shinobi gloves like the ones that his sensei Kakashi wears, where they cut off at the second knuckle of the finger. They were black in color with a few scuff marks from many years of use. The material felt smooth yet strong like most ninja gear, but stronger than normal like they would last for eons. Instead of the normal metal plating that was on top of the glove like Kakashi's these had a clear dome that looked to be made of glass. Naruto felt the small dome, letting the smooth glass run across his fingertips, and felt no scratches or nicks. The last thing he noticed about the gloves was the hard knuckles and metal rings around the finger holes.

"You ok kid?" Naruto looked up into a young man's face. He looked to be in his early twenties with dark black hair and light brown eyes. Naruto could tell he was young because the guy in front of him had barely any stubble on his face. He wore a dark blue long sleeved shirt with a red vest over it. His pants were forest green and stopped just above his ankles over a pair of black sandals.

"Ugh, I think these are yours." Naruto said while getting up. The man helped Naruto up while taking the gloves and inspecting them.

"Ah yes, these gloves. Surprising that Emi would throw these. You ok though? These things are pretty hard."

"Yeah I'm good." Naruto looked up at the building. "What is this place anyway?" The man brightened up and walked in front of the place.

"Welcome to Oshiro's Snack and Smith. We're here for your sweets and shuriken needs. I'm Oshiro Takuma, the co-owner of this here establishment! Why don't you come inside?" Naruto and Ino looked at one another before walking in after Takuma with Gamakichi back on the blonde boy's head. All the toad heard from the man's introduction was 'Snack' and 'sweets'.

* * *

**And that's that! What happens next? Tune in next time to Behold the Mimic! Remember to read/review tell me what you think happens next. BTW Spoiler: What do you think the Crow is!**


	9. Faster the Treadmill's Round Start

Chapter 9: Faster the Treadmill's Round Start

**Another update for you all. Hope you guys like it!**

**Cover: Naruto walking in front of the Cūnin exam stadium. His eyes are closed and his arms are out while he faces away from the stadium. Behind him the wind blows the trees causing them to sway making leaves swirl around the boy. A smile is on Naruto's face as Gamakichi hops behind him happily. Behind Naruto are Emi and Takuma both running to catch up to the boy. **

**Intro Music ON: STFU by Girugamesh**

**Beta by Tigee86**

* * *

Chapter 9: Behold Mimic

Naruto picked up a bag of fifty shuriken in a candy-colored bag and weighed it in his hand. The bright green package weighed a bit more than the pink one in his other hand. Naruto presumed that these were a higher grade and put the pink bag back on the shelf. The blonde walked to the front of the store where Takuma was arguing with an attractive girl about a year older then Naruto and his friends with long brown hair and the same colored eyes as her older brother. She wore a tight fitting blue shirt with a brown smock over it. The counter covered most of her bottom half but Naruto could see the beginnings of a blue skirt. They were in front of a wooden counter that was itself sitting in front of a wooden table. On top of the table were the gloves that had smashed him into the face.

"I'm telling you Emi you need to quit throwing our stuff out of the windows. Now I need to fix them. Takuma grumbled. Emi huffed and flipped her hair.

"Well stop being so lazy and make sure you clean out the storeroom." Emi replied. Naruto smiled to himself while the siblings squabbled. It must be nice to have family to talk to. The boy looked at his items and listed what he had gotten in his head and how much it would cost.

'Let's see, I have the bag of fifty shuriken, twenty feet of ninja wire, a case of thirty kunai, and two bags of candy.' Naruto thought. The ninja supplies were a must and the candy, well why come to a sweet shop and not buy candy? Plus, when he summoned Gamakichi again he'd have the candy to pacify the toad. Speaking of the little animal, he was ecstatic to get free samples of the candy that the Oshiro siblings sold. Once he had his fill, the toad thanked the owners happily and told Naruto to summon him whenever and then disappeared back to his world. After Gamakichi's appetite was taken care of Ino and Naruto were given an impromptu tour of the store. The blonde boy was ecstatic to find a plethora of weapons ranging from the simple shuriken to amazingly crafted swords. Speaking of his identically blonde companion, Naruto stretched his head as he stood on his tiptoes trying to find the girl.

Ino was growing frustrated. After being shown the store she preceded to look around on her own while Naruto shopped for things that he needed. Like Naruto, she was amazed at how much the store had. But the way this damn place was set up infuriated her! She had just finished walking down the aisle that held kunais of different grades when she turned the corner and ended up facing an aisle full of snacks. All she wanted to do was find the front counter so she could get out of this maze like place. Suddenly a voice came from her right and she saw the top of Naruto's head over the shelves.

"Hey Ino get over here." Ino sighed in relief and meandered her way around towards the front counter to find Naruto with his arm crossed looking at her impatiently. "What happened?"

"I got lost. This place is freaking huge!" Ino seethed. Takuma and Emi had stopped fighting to watch as Naruto laughed at Ino and the girl balled up her fist and smashed it upon the boy's head. Naruto smacked against the counter with a loud bang, causing his items to bounce up. Naruto groaned loudly and Takuma laughed heartily.

"See you got girl problems too, huh? Don't worry kid my sister causes me stress too." Takuma said, receiving a sandal to the face. Emi growled lowly while Takuma and Naruto lay on the counter moaning.

"She ain't my sister, but she does like to hit me. I try not to get her mad." Naruto whispered.

"Smart boy." Takuma and Naruto pushed themselves up and the man looked at Naruto's items. Grabbing everything he rang them up on the scanner and tapped on the cash register. Emi crossed her arms and watched her brother and Naruto with intense eyes and the boy gulped. She was a scary person to cross apparently. As Naruto pulled his wallet from his pocket he saw Takuma staring at the screen of his register intently.

'Oh no,' Naruto thought 'He's just like the others. He's probably thinking of how high to overcharge me. I should have known they were being too nice, well, at least he was. His sister hasn't really talked to me. Emi might not know about it but this guy should be old enough.' Naruto frowned sadly and started to put his frog shaped wallet back into his pants when Takuma's voice cut his thoughts short.

"Emi, these shuriken are medium grade and made with Kanto type metal right?" Takuma said, holding up the bright green bag. Emi picked up the pouch from her brother's hand and lifted it up and down. She clicked her tongue a few times and walked forward and reached behind the wooden counter pulling out something the two Genin couldn't see. Her arm appeared later holding a shiny silver bag much like the green one and hefted that up and down.

"I see what you're talking about nii-san. I think the tag is wrong because you charged him for the high grade shuriken made from Jhoto metal." Emi said. She then put the silver bag back under the table and set the green bag down. "Sorry Naruto, that's our mistake." Emi said, smiling at the surprised boy. "That will be 1600 ryo."

Naruto was flabbergasted. Not only did these two not overcharge him, but they also caught a mistake with their pricing and fixed it! "B-but I thought it would be much higher! You," Naruto said pointing at Takuma who tilted his head. "You should know about it..." Naruto stated, his voice slowly growing into a whisper and his head going down. Takuma looked at the young boy confused before his eyes flashed in understanding. Emi looked at Naruto sadly and crossed her arms. Takuma shook his head and sighed. The poor kid probably expected him to raise the price to an outrageous level. He reached over and patted Naruto's head, who had raised it in shock.

"Naruto, it's ok. Here you won't be treated like that." Takuma said smiling. Naruto's eyes widened and he had to hold in the tears that formed at the corners of his eyes. Ino was still next to him, staring confused at the situation. Naruto tried to ignore her; he didn't want to explain anything right now.

"Thank you." Naruto whispered and pulled out his wallet again. Counting his money, he found that he still had a good amount seeing as he only bought the essentials. Naruto pulled a wad of ryo out and handed it to Takuma. Takuma took it and counted the money before stopping and looking at Naruto oddly. He opened his mouth to speak before Naruto cut off with a wave and a smile. "Keep the change. I'll be back you; can count on it." Naruto grinned. Takuma's confused look turned into a grin and Emi smiled at the blonde boy.

"Thank you Naruto-kun." Emi smiled brightly causing Naruto blush and scratch his head. The girl was much cuter when she smiled. Ino narrowed her eyes at the scene and nudged Naruto with her elbow. For some reason him blushing at the girl while she was there made her feel weird. Naruto muttered an 'Ow' and grumbled under his breath.

"Well I should get going. I have to train more for the finals. Hey, maybe you guys can come see me kick some ass?" Naruto said as he gathered his things.

"We'd love to go, see you." Takuma laughed. While Naruto talked about all the ways he was going to kick Neji's ass Takuma turned around at the table behind him. He looked between the gloves and the young ninja and smiled. 'Funny that it was these gloves that hit him. If you were in my shoes I'm sure you would have done the same thing...father.'

"Hey Naruto."

"Hmm?"

"I have a favor to ask. You think you could hold on to something of ours till tomorrow?" Takuma said picking up the gloves.

"Um yeah, sure, but what should I do with them?" Naruto asked, taking the two objects from Takuma's outstretched hand. Naruto noticed that Emi was staring at the two of them with wide eyes hut her gaze kept going to her brother. Shock and worry was written all over her face. Naruto didn't feel too comfortable with that expression.

"Don't worry about anything. Just hold on to them and hey, try them out if you want. Just make sure you come back tomorrow ok?" Naruto nodded and he and Ino walked out of the store leaving the siblings to themselves.

"What are you thinking Takuma-nii? Those gloves are-"

"I know Emi-chan. Just trust me. I have a feeling that our life is about to get very interesting with him in our lives."

* * *

Naruto walked back to his apartment after dropping Ino off at her house. He had had an interesting encounter as he arrived at the girl's home. When they reached her flower shop/house her father had burst through the door with what looked like the largest kunai Naruto had ever seen. The man then started yelling at the frightened boy, scaring him further, hollering that he was just another hooligan trying to steal his baby's pure flower. Naruto screamed and ran away with Ino's father in pursuit while Ino yelled at Inoichi to stop, clearly embarrassed. That day Naruto learned the horror of overprotective fathers.

After his frightening ordeal Naruto decided he had enough excitement for the day and headed home. He had training with Ero-Sennin tomorrow anyways.

* * *

Jiraiya sat at the Hokage's desk with a frown marring his features. It was late into the evening now so old Sarutobi would have quiet, plus the privacy seals should be turned on at this time.

"So you're telling me that Naruto-kun had a seal on his stomach that was messing with his chakra? No wonder he mentioned something like that during the preliminaries." Hiruzen sighed loudly and lit his pipe letting the tobacco sooth his nerves. First Orochimaru marks Suki and now he may have an interest in the boy he thought a grandson.

"I took care of the seal so it's no problem sensei. But what surprises me is what happened while I was teaching him. Sensei, he was able to summon a toad on his first try. The amount of chakra he must have is amazing, plus, his control isn't as bad as I've heard." Jiraiya said. He was confused when the old man in front of him smiled and chuckled.

"Naruto has a way of surprising people. I've heard in Kakashi's report that he taught them a little more than he first wanted to. Naruto learned the water walking exercise in Nami so it is my guess that Naruto continued to do that and the tree walking exercise after he learned it."

"Then what should I do for him now? I can have him continue to summon larger and larger toads but he seems like he'd get bored of that easy. I don't want to teach him Rasengan yet." Jiraiya huffed in annoyance. "The kid is a whole bundle of surprises isn't he?" The Sandaime laughed and the two sat in the office reminiscing of old times. As the hour turned late, Jiraiya pulled himself from the comfortable chair as he got ready to leave.

"I guess I can teach the kid how to amplify his speed and maybe some taijutsu. He's facing the Hyuuga kid so he needs to be fast." the younger of the white haired men sighed and scratched his head. "I might even have to get him to draw out Kyūbi's power soon. I guess I have a plan. Well, see you later sensei."

"One more thing Jiraiya-kun." Hiruzen said, stopping his old student. "Naruto learns by doing so I suggest showing instead of telling. May I suggest a good fight to get his blood pumping?" Jiraiya hummed before nodding and disappearing out the window leaving a small whirlwind of leaves in his wake.

* * *

Naruto was back at the spot where he first summoned Gamakichi, standing on in the field next to the river and the shore. In his hands were the gloves that Takuma and Emi had lent him and right now he was inspecting them. They looked the same as when they first smacked him in the head. He did notice that near the wrist of the gloves were two clips so he could attach them to a belt buckle or something. He tested their stitching to see if they would rip off but it seemed like the clips were secure. Naruto didn't exactly want to put them on yet. He was to meet with the Oshiro siblings today after training so if he did put them on and something happened, he wanted Emi and Takuma to be there.

A pillar of smoke alerted Naruto of a presence and once the smoke cleared Jiraiya stood there with the sun shining behind him.

"So kid, you ready to get started?" Naruto nodded and clipped the gloves to his right hip and ran over to the man.

"So Ero-Sennin what's on the agenda today?"

"Quit calling me that! Jeez! Well, I wanted to work on your summoning but I think we'll get to that later. Your opponent is that Hyuuga boy right?"

"Yup. I have to beat him for talking down on Hinata like that. Someone needs kick his ass and that's going to be me! I'll use everything I got and take him out in one shot!" Naruto shouted. Jiraiya bonked Naruto on the head and the boy dropped to the ground with a hiss of pain. "What the hell you pervert? Why'd you hit me?" Naruto yelled.

"We need to work on your patience. My guess was that you were going to flood the kid with clones till the Hyuuga got tired." Naruto blushed in embarrassment. That was exactly what he was thinking of doing, with a Reigan blast and rubber move thrown in here and there. Jiraiya sighed. "It's ok kid. That's why I'm here; so today what we are going to do, "Jiraiya blurred behind Naruto and picked him up to the boy's amazement "is work on speed."

* * *

Naruto tiredly walked down the road towards Oshiro's Snack and Smith, his legs feeling like jelly. Jiraiya had him go through some vigorous conditioning to make his body ready to handle moving at great speeds. Jiraiya had showed him the handseals for the Shunshin no jutsu (Body Flicker jutsu) but Naruto felt like finding some other speed technique. Not to say he wouldn't learn Shunshin, but if he could find something that didn't need a seal then he'd be happy. The Toad Sennin said that even if he got good with Shunshin he'd still need at least one handseal, half if he became an expert, to initiate the technique.

"There has to be some other way of augmenting my speed." Naruto stopped walking and scratched his head. "When did I start using words like 'augmenting'? Meh, maybe I'm getting smarter. Whatever, I need to get to Takuma and Emi's quick." Naruto ran through the road and finally came to a stop outside the shop. Coincidentally there was a wooden board placed where the broken window was. Naruto walked through the door and looked around trying to spot anyone.

"Hello Naruto-kun." Naruto yelped and quickly spotted Emi walking down a flight of stairs that led to the second floor of the building Naruto had yet to see. Emi was dressed in a simple red tank top with a blue short sleeved vest and a blue skirt today and Naruto had the sudden realization that many ninja dress in the same looking attire day by day. For example, Naruto himself had at least four of the orange jumpsuits, not saying he didn't have any other clothes but it seemed like he and his ninja brethren dressed the same regularly. Odd...

"Hi Emi-chan," Naruto said forgetting about the clothes issue. "Where's Takuma? Didn't he say I had to come here today?"

"Oh, you're here already Naruto? Excellent that means we can get started." Takuma said as he came down the same stairs Emi did. "Why don't you follow me and I'll show you something cool." Takuma walked down the stairs and maneuvered his way around the shelves with Emi and Naruto behind him. Naruto found himself way in the back of the first floor and in front of a door that must have led to the backyard of the building. Naruto's guess was correct as he saw the open space once Takuma opened the door and led them all outside. What Naruto was surprised about were the various targets lining the trees that encompassed the large space and the multitude of training dummies that looked to have been used quite a bit. In a far corner of the yard was an item that confused Naruto. Under the shade of a large tree looked to be an anvil with various tools strewn around it. Next to the anvil was a trough of what looked to be water and these items all stood in front of a shed with a small chimney that was letting out a swirling line of black smoke.

"You guys are ninja?" Naruto asked surprised. Takuma chuckled and Emi giggled.

"Children of a family of ninja. We, as in me and Emi, aren't ninja. We are smiths." Takuma explained.

"Then what's with the targets and dummies?"

"Well we have to test our products before we sell them." Emi stated. "We pride ourselves on selling the best so testing them for any problems is what we do here." Naruto nodded and continued to survey the field. It was quite an amazing place.

"So let's get down to business. Did you bring those gloves Naruto?" Takuma asked. Naruto nodded and unclipped said item from his waist. Takuma took them from Naruto's hand. "So, did you use them?" Naruto shook his head in a negative. "Huh. Well, I was hoping you would have put them on but I guess an example would be better."

"I didn't want to put them on in case something to them." Naruto explained. "What if I did something I wasn't supposed to?"

"Oh don't worry Naruto." Takuma laughed. "These babies are nigh indestructible. But I thank you for your courtesy." Takuma slipped on the gloves. "I wanted you to put them on so you could see this." Takuma held his hands up and the metal rings around each finger hole on the gloves glowed briefly. Suddenly, metal plating shot from the rings and covered the rest of each finger that was not covered by the glove. The plating segmented at each finger joint with a click and then melded at the tips until you could no longer see the skin of Takuma's finger.

"Whoa...that is bad...ass!" Naruto said amazed. Takuma chuckled at the boy's amazement.

"You haven't seen anything yet Naruto." Takuma motioned for Naruto to follow and Naruto and Emi followed the young man towards the anvil. "Now, these gloves are very special Naruto. The reason is that the people who have used them have been able to accomplish amazing things. For example, I want you to look at the anvil right there." Naruto looked at the large anvil then back to Takuma and shrugged.

"I don't see anything too special." Takuma walked to the anvil and from the pocket of his beige pants pulled out a large lump of what looked to be metal.

"It is not the anvil that is special. It is what I am going to do on it that is amazing." Takuma placed the lump of metal on the flat surface of the anvil then held his covered hands over them. Suddenly the glass domes atop the gloves glowed blue and the palms of Takuma's hands started to shine. He then grasped the metal and started to work it into a shape as if it were clay. His eyes narrowed in concentration and he bit his cheek as he molded the metal much Naruto's amazement. Time passed and in Takuma's hands was a weapon that shined white as if it were heated to an extreme level. Takuma dunked his hand and the item into the trough of water and steam erupted out. Naruto waved the steam away and as it dispersed the dark haired young man was holding a very large kunai.

"These gloves have allowed me to mold metal and shape it so that I may create things at a faster pace. If I make things this way then they are able to channel chakra, unlike other weapons." Takuma said, placing the kunai on the anvil. Takuma gripped the bottom of the gloves and started to slide them off and as he did so the metal covering his fingers slid back. "I am able to make weapons and Emi here has been able to do the same thing. These gloves have really helped us with making items."

"But if they're so special," Naruto said looking at the gloves as they were placed in his hands. "Why are you giving them to me?"

"Well we aren't really giving them to you...yet. Let's say we are lending them to you and if you can use them to such a degree like us I might be inclined to give 'em to ya."

"But if you do then you can't make all those things you normally would be able to!" Naruto exclaimed confused. Why would they give him such an invaluable item? Naruto could not grasp what was going on and his face clearly showed it. Takuma grinned and ruffled the blonde's head.

"Kid, call it a little experiment on my part. I know who you are and I've seen how people treat you. But I think everything that has happened to you is unfair."

"But your work?"

Takuma held his hand in front of Naruto and to the boy's surprise the palm of Takuma's hand started to glow blue. "I've been using those gloves since I was ten. I've been able to do what you just saw without using those gloves for years. Emi just recently mastered being able to do that with no help from the gloves."

Takuma started to head back into the shop with Emi skipping after him. "Trust me Naruto; I see great things in your future."

* * *

After thanking both Emi and Takuma profusely, Naruto left the shop and headed out towards the training ground he was supposed to meet Jiraiya at. His outing to see the Oshiro siblings was only his lunch break so he still had the rest of the day to train with the self-proclaimed Sage.

Naruto made it to the field to see Jiraiya standing in front of the river. The man seemed to be in deep concentration. Naruto ran over to the man and stopped in front of him.

"Oi Ero-Sennin, you ok?" Naruto asked. Jiraiya shook himself out of his day dream and looked down at his young charge.

"Yeah, I was just thinking. So you ready to finish training for today?" Naruto nodded smiling brightly and Jiraiya noticed the gloves Naruto had earlier today were still with him. Deciding the boy would tell him about it later the two of them walked to the middle of the field. "Right well before your little lunch break we were working on conditioning your body so that it could handle moving at high speeds. For the rest of today we are going to put what you learned to practice." Jiraiya said. Naruto nodded and then the two stood at ready facing one another. Jiraiya started the spar off by reaching behind him and tossing a salvo of shuriken at the boy.

Naruto quickly ran through the three seals he needed before he disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Jiraiya turned behind him as a cloud of smoke erupted forth and Naruto ran out of it with his arm pulled back. Jiraiya brought his arm out to block and Naruto's fist smashed into the arm guard on the Sannin's forearm. Naruto pulled back his fist and then started to circle around Jiraiya not unlike how he saw Lee doing during his preliminary match. Though Naruto knew he was nowhere NEAR as fast Lee when he was doing this, the boy could see that he was getting faster. Jiraiya watched Naruto move around him and focused on the blonde before shooting his foot out hoping to catch the boy with his geta. Naruto ducked to the side and rushed towards Jiraiya who was hoping for this outcome.

"You're too predictable boy!" Jiraiya yelled as he pivoted and brought his palm out to smash it into Naruto's head. The appendage bounced off Naruto's headband and Jiraiya brought his hand down three more times causing Naruto to stumble backwards in pain. Naruto growled lowly and rubbed his head trying to get his vision to stop swimming.

"Kage Bunshin no jutsu!" The training ground was covered in smoke and facing Jiraiya was about fifty Narutos. "Get him!" Naruto yelled as clones yelled out their agreement. Jiraiya dodged to the left and right while occasionally dispersing a Naruto that either got too close or that tried to attack him. "Gomu Gomu no Pistoru!"

Jiraiya flipped over the stretching arm of Naruto while a clone jumped into the air above him. The Sannin narrowed his eyes as he saw the clone charge up a Reigan and then fire the bullet of chakra down at him. Using a quick substitution with a nearby bunshin, he watched as it was destroyed and the clone that fired the Reigan dispersed after using its last bit of chakra for the blast. Jiraiya looked at the mass of clones surrounding him, all staring at the man with narrowed eyes. As if a switch was flipped all of the Narutos charged forward with a loud cry. Jiraiya tensed in anticipation before jumping high into the air and flying through seals. "Katon: Gōkakyū no jutsu!" The original Naruto yelped before jumping away.

"Damn, I need to catch him off guard." Naruto looked around at his remaining clones and called one over to him. If his idea worked with Kiba then who's to say it won't work now. Jiraiya landed back to the ground and surveyed how many clones were left. It was down to about ten clones compared to the original fifty. Just then, he saw two blondes jump into the air behind him so that they were in front of the sun. Jiraiya frowned at the light but praised the boy for using the light to temporarily blind him. Naruto grabbed his clone and lobbed it at his teacher and placed his hand in a seal transforming the flying clone. A puff of smoke shrouded the clone and Jiraiya curved his eyebrow then cursed loudly when a roaring fire burst forth from the smoke. "Hope this works. Here I come Ero-Sennin! Maneryū: Gōkakyū (Mimic the flow: Grand Fireball)." Jiraiya flipped away and stared transfixed at the spot where the fire hit as it burned the ground. The fire then burst into smoke but the damage to the ground was done.

"Kami that was surprising..." Jiraiya whispered still a bit shaken up. The original Naruto dropped back down the ground panting. Jiraiya sensing an opportunity sprang forward and dropped Naruto to the ground having the boy face down while he held his arm behind his back.

"Damn and here I was hoping to catch you with that last move." Naruto said as he leaned against a tree while drinking from a canteen. The spar had ended and the rest of clones dispersed once Naruto was put into the ground.

"That was quite a shock, I'll admit, but I'm not a Sannin for nothing." Jiraiya looked down at Naruto as he contemplated what just happened. As he was thinking Naruto popped back up and looked at the charred ground that he had made with the clone.

"So it did work. Heh, maybe I can finally do that." Naruto grinned as he placed his hands into a seal. Jiraiya didn't like the way Naruto said 'that' and pushed off the tree he was leaning on to stop the boy. He was too late sadly and Naruto called out 'Henge!' before being consumed by ninja smoke. Jiraiya waited with baited breath and when the smoke started to disperse so that he could see something Naruto screamed loudly in pain. The man quickly rushed off of the side of the tree and waved away the smoke so that he could see the boy. Naruto looked normal except for the fact that he was yelling in pain and would sometimes vomit, stopping his own screams of agony. Jiraiya immediately picked the boy up and rushed to the hospital not noticing as Naruto fell into unconsciousness.

* * *

Naruto woke up and rubbed his eyes blearily. As he took in his surroundings he realized he was in a hospital. Next to the open window was Jiraiya who looked down at the village with a worried frown.

"What did you do back there?" Jiraiya said. Naruto shook his head to get his bearings and tried to remember what happened. The memory of his pain came back and Naruto winced. Maybe trying to transform his body into the resemblance of Luffy again wasn't a good idea. Last time he vomited this time must have been worse because he was already burned out from fighting Jiraiya.

"I tried to transform my body into rubber. I figured since I got transforming my clones into metal and fire I was ready now." Naruto said. "Apparently not yet."

"I think we need to have a talk about this special transformation that you have." Jiraiya walked to Naruto's bed and sat down in a seat next to him. "You've done something that I've never seen or thought possible. You are actually able to transform and it isn't an illusion like it is supposed to be."

"You mean like that layer of chakra that is an illusion? I talked to Ino about this already. I don't know the specifics but apparently something happens that's different. But I don't understand. Why can't I get my body to change to rubber but I was able to transform into a dog during my prelims, while also turning the clones I had into metal slabs, turned that one clone into fire, and hell I even turned myself into a fūma shuriken during my trip to Nami. What is going on?"

Jiraiya listened intently and thought about what Naruto told him. He may have an idea as to what was going on and how to explain it to Naruto. "Okay Naruto, let me try to explain what I believe is going on. What you do with your transformations at this moment is make that layer of chakra that should be an illusion real. To anybody else, if they tried transforming into something then you could pass your hand through that layer of chakra thus disrupting the illusion. You are changing chakra which to me is an incredible phenomenon."

"What's a phenomenon?"

"It's basically a miracle. Anyways, now as I was saying I believe what you were trying to do back there was way beyond your abilities."

"But I changed into fire! Metal even! What is changing my body into rubber compared to those?"

"That's just it Naruto. You didn't change into those, your clones did. Do you know what shadow clones are? They are basically large masses of chakra made solid. You are inherently using your abilities to transform that huge chakra mass into anything. Chakra is energy Naruto. It is the mixture of physical and spiritual energy but it is still energy. Until you can figure out how to not only transform chakra but your body as well then you won't be able to change into that rubber form you desire. When you transformed yourself into that shuriken and the dog you were making what would normally be the illusionary layer of chakra real. For your rubber style, there is no illusion; you need more training to be able to pull off changing your whole body to that degree. I'm amazed you're able to change your arm since what you are doing is transforming your whole body structure using chakra as the catalyst."

Naruto stared blankly at the wall as he tried to comprehend what the Sannin said to him. Jiraiya had thrown in so many complicated terms and words that it took the boy some time to figure out what he meant. After sitting in silence for a while Naruto looked up to Jiraiya.

"So basically you're telling me that if I wanna change into something else using chakra to coat my body then I can because I'm basically making the illusion people see real. But if I want to change my body as it is, I need more training." Jiraiya nodded and Naruto slumped back into his bed. "This is so confusing." Naruto sighed. Jiraiya chuckled at Naruto's frustration.

"We could just chalk everything up to the wonders of ninja arts. There are still many things that even the smartest of shinobi can't explain because the ninja skills are a mystical art passed down from long ago. But anyways let's skip the history lesson for now." Jiraiya said as he got up and walked to the door. "I'd be considering you very lucky Naruto." Naruto tilted his head in askance. "Imagine what would have happened if you tried turning your body into fire like you did your clone. I'd be sweeping you up hahaha! See you tomorrow kid!"

Naruto watched Jiraiya leave and gulped. Maybe this month off would be good for him to learn a little more about how far he could go with his transformation abilities. On the plus side, he did learn that turning his clones into completely different things is possible which opened up a new way of fighting for him. The Maneryū, Mimic the Flow.

* * *

A groan escaped Naruto's mouth as he rolled in the hospital bed. In just a month he was already in the hospital again. It seemed like he was in this bed just the other day but he knew that couldn't be the case. Time must fly from one hospital visit to the other. Yesterday had been quite the experience for the young boy. He had not only met the Boss of the Toad summons but met the cause of much of his hardship. In more or less words, the Kyūbi no Kitsune was a bitch. It tried to stab him with its claw and then laughed at the boy's bravado.

Naruto had been pushed over the edge and had been forced to retreat to his mind to save his own skin. And by pushed over the edge, if anyone asked Naruto would say he was literally pushed over the edge. That damn pervert of a sensei actually threw him off a cliff. Naruto couldn't believe he actually did that just so that he could meet with the Kyūbi. Meeting the fox wasn't a very fun experience either.

* * *

_Naruto screamed as he tumbled down into the darkness of the ravine. The boy's life flashed before his eyes as he fell and he couldn't help but wonder why such an enormous safety hazard such as this cliff wasn't closed off._

_Naruto closed his eyes to wait for the end when he felt like he was no longer falling. Opening his eyes Naruto found himself in a dimly lit hall with water up to his ankles. Above him were a number of pipes all crisscrossing in an intricate way. Naruto started to walk forward feeling compelled to reach the end of the hall. As the hall ended Naruto looked up to take in his new surroundings. He was in a huge space with darkness going in every way except for forward. Instead of darkness what stood in front of him was an enormous gate that dwarfed the boy. The bars looked thicker than Naruto's body and high above the blonde's head where the two cage doors met was a large paper with a seal on it._

_Naruto heard the sound of breathing coming from the other side of the cage and walked forward._

_"__**Come closer...**__" a voice whispered. Naruto continued to slowly step forward. When he was about five feet from the gate a loud crashing sound frightened him and Naruto jumped back. A pair of gigantic claws had tried to grab Naruto and a roar was heard._

_"What the hell?"_

_"__**Damn these bars! If only that seal wasn't there I would have eaten you human!**__" the voice roared. Naruto looked closer and from the darkness of the inside of the cage a glowing red eye larger than Naruto appeared._

_"You...you're the Kyūbi!" Naruto screamed in realization. The demon fox laughed maliciously, showing itself as Naruto yelled obscenities at the being inside the cage._

_"__**What an amusing human you are. I will enjoy picking you out of my teeth,**__" the fox growled._

_"Shut up! You're the reason for everything and it is time you pay me back. Give me some of your chakra so I can get us out of this situation." Naruto pointed to Kyūbi and made a grabbing motion as he spoke._

_"__**Oh has the puny human come to ask for help. Hahaha well be grateful that your life is tied with mine. Here boy,**__" Kyūbi said and as it spoke crimson chakra leaked from the cage towards Naruto who stood glaring, "__**take my chakra and feel its power. You'll come to rely on me you weak brat.**__"_

_"Like hell," Naruto spat. "If it were up to me I'd never have your power running through me in the first place. Know this fox," Naruto said as he started to disappear. "I will never rely on you." And then the boy vanished from his mind scape back to the outside world_

* * *

After gaining power from Kyūbi Naruto was able to save himself by summoning Gamabunta. After that he passed some weird test and became Gamabunta's underling, he always thought it was the other way around, before passing out. In a hospital bed is where he woke up and he has been stuck there for two days already.

Naruto groaned again and sat up. He was bored. The nurses wouldn't let Naruto leave till tomorrow because they wanted to keep him here for one more day of rest. They did not appreciate the fact that he was back in the hospital in less than a month, saying something about why fix him when he gets hurt again. His door opened and a basket of fruit appeared through the opening.

"Huh?"

"Hey Naruto how you doing? Heard you were in the hospital," Shikamaru said as he walked through the door with the fruit basket in hand.

"Shikamaru what are you doing here?"

"Eh well Chouji got sick after eating too much and I decided to visit him. Too bad he can't eat this cause my mom made me come and give this to him. Man what a troublesome woman," Shikamaru said with a sigh. Naruto chuckled and the two reached for the fruit. Naruto suddenly had a very evil gleam in his eyes that made Shikamaru look at the boy in confusion.

"Hey Shikamaru let's eat in front of Chouji."

"Naruto...you're evil but hey if this makes it so he learns his lesson then let's go."

The two of them walked down the hall when they were hit with killer intent that radiated from the room they passed. Naruto opened the door and was shocked to see that Gaara boy standing over an unconscious Lee. His sand was poised to strike and ready to kill Lee when Shikamaru quickly dropped the basket of fruit and sent his shadow towards Gaara. Gaara's hand stopped midway from Lee and a look of shock ran across his usual emotionless face. Naruto came running forward and smashed a fist into Gaara's cheek eliciting a shout of pain from Shikamaru.

"Oi what are you doing here!" Naruto yelled ignoring Shikamaru's irritated scolding.

"It is obvious isn't it? I'm here to kill him?" Gaara said quietly.

"Why? You already beat him," Shikamaru said trying to hold his Shadow Mimic technique as long as he could.

"This doesn't concern the Chunin exams. I just want to kill him."

"Oh yeah then you're going to have to go through me first then," Naruto growled.

"Naruto shut up. You've seen this guy fight. He's a demon."

"Don't worry Shikamaru. If he wants to see demons, I've got a real one inside of me."

"A demon you say..." Gaara's head went down as his hair shaded his eyes. "When I was born the Ichibi no Shūkaku was sealed into me by my father, the Kazekage. When I wasn't how he had hoped he sent assassins out to kill me. I didn't know what I had done to deserve anything and I didn't know what pain was. That was until my uncle Yashamaru came to kill me. From then on I learned my true purpose. My purpose is to kill all so I may feel alive!" Sand erupted from the large gourd that was on Gaara's back and Shikamaru yelled in panic dispelling his Kage Mane. Naruto was frozen in a mixture of fear and realization as the sand came upon him and his friend.

'He...he's just like me,' a green blur crossed his vision and there was Gai with his hand out disrupting the sand wave. He had saved the two boys and told them to keep it in the exams. Naruto left from that room while gulping. It wasn't just Neji he had to worry about. Gaara was also an opponent he had to defeat. Gaara was also a demon container...

* * *

The end of the month off for Naruto was coming closer to a close and every day of that month had Naruto training as hard as he could with the Sannin. At the moment he was currently behind a tree catching his breath while his clones distracted the man. Placing his hands into a seal his body was shrouded by smoke and when that cleared a large hawk had taken his place.

After his and Jiraiya's discussion about the different aspects of his Henge Naruto had trained vigorously, testing his limits. Transforming into a bird was one if his more difficult transformations compared to when he turned into Akamaru due to the fact that even though it was him still inside of that henge bird, he still had to learn how to make the chakra over him as realistic as possible. That meant he had to figure out how birds could fly and that meant...reading. He hated reading. But it did help him transform until he could truly mess with his body composition.

Back to the present, Naruto focused on the fight now and waited for the right moment to rush out. He saw one of his clones jump on Jiraiya's back and another four grab his arms and legs. As good as time as any, Naruto in his hawk form flew forth and glided so he was above Jiraiya. Not being able to hold the hawk form for a long time, Naruto was forced to drop his henge but it was ok for him because he was already into position. As he free fell from the sky Jiraiya noticed a shadow on him get larger and larger. Throwing off the clones in a hurry he looked up to counter Naruto but was too late as the boy threw out a fist that was glowing slightly with chakra.

"Shottogan (Shotgun)!" Naruto yelled as his fist let loose a round of little bursts of chakra that were smaller than his Reigan blasts. Jiraiya cursed and quickly dove underground using a Doton while the chakra salvo peppered into where he just was, effectively dispersing the clones. Naruto landed and looked around frantically for where the other man was when he felt a pair of hands wrap around his ankles.

"Wah?"

"Doton: Shinjū Zanshu no jutsu (Earth release: Headhunter jutsu)." Jiraiya said as he pulled himself from the ground while Naruto tried to pull himself out of the ground.

"Dammit, now I know how Suki felt! Get me out Ero-Sennin!" Naruto yelled.

"Nice try today brat." Jiraiya laughed. "You're getting better but you'll never beat me." Jiraiya pulled Naruto out of the ground and held the boy in the air while Naruto brushed himself off of all the dirt.

"Hmph fine Ero-Sennin, you win this one. So we done today?" Naruto asked as he was set down.

"Oh, you got some plans? You finally get a date brat?" Jiraiya asked, pulling out his notebook. Naruto growled and smacked Jiraiya in the head with a loud 'Bonk!'

"No you pervert! I wanna go eat at Ichiraku's and I have something I need to work on before this month is over. The end is coming soon ya know." Naruto said.

"Oh so you have some mysterious technique that you been working on? Why not let me help? I am teaching you this month ya know." Jiraiya said to the retreating boy.

"Don't worry Ero-Sennin, I'll show you when it's finished. Hopefully I'll be done with it by the finals!"

After leaving the training field Naruto headed over to the ramen stand and slid into his favorite seat.

"Hey, there's our favorite customer! You don't come here as often as you used to." Teuchi said when he saw Naruto.

"Sorry old man," Naruto laughed scratching his head "just been training hard for those finals. Ya wanna see me win right Ayame-chan?" The older girl giggled while putting a bowl in front of the boy.

"Of course Naruto-kun. Can you tell us what you're working on?" Ayame asked while Naruto scarfed down his first few bowls of ramen.

"Sure, I'll even show you after I'm done." Naruto grinned. Naruto spent a while in the company of the two people that gave him so much joy as a child. As the hour turned late Naruto looked into the sky and tried to judge the time.

"Well I'll be off. I'm going to work on something before going to bed tonight." Naruto said, jumping from the stool. "I know you guys wanted to see something so watch this. I think now that I'm all rested up I can hold this longer." Naruto walked forward before his body went up in smoke, from the smoke flew a hawk that circled around and landed on the stand table. It looked at Ayame and Teuchi who both looked shocked before flapping away into the sky.

"Father."

"Yes sweetie?"

"Did he just fly away?"

"Yes sweetie."

"Cool..."

* * *

Naruto sat panting in the middle of a training area surrounded by trees. He didn't want anyone to see what he was working on, no not just yet. He wasn't done. Unbeknownst to him Jiraiya had followed him all day. After the boy had left the ramen stand he had come to this secluded spot to train on his own. Naruto was working on something and Jiraiya wanted to watch over the boy just to make sure he didn't hurt himself.

It was late into the evening and the sky was dark as stars peppered the black sky. Jiraiya watched as Naruto stood back up and looked into the sky.

"Ok Naruto show me what you have been working on." Jiraiya whispered as he felt the wind pick up slightly. The man could feel power starting to build from Naruto and suddenly he had to cover his eyes. The sky flashed blue for but a second and Jiraiya caught a glimpse of Naruto through the blinding light and his eyes widened.

"Naruto... What have you done?"

* * *

"Welcome to the Chūnin Exam finals. I'm Shiranui Genma and I'll be the proctor for today' matches," a man in the usual Jōnin garb said. His headband was used as a bandana to cover the top of his slightly long brown hair and in his mouth was a senbon needle.

"Hey senbon guy what happened to that other guy?" Naruto asked.

"Gekou Hayate could not make it here so I'll be filling in for him. Also, with the recent dropping out of Dosu we will have Gaara versing Suki in the second round. And my name is Genma brat," Genma growled through his makeshift toothpick. Naruto stuck his tongue out before looking around at the large stadium surrounding him and his fellow examinees. "Look alive you guys," Genma said. "All these people are here to see you." Naruto gulped and readied himself before noticing that something was off with his fellow competitors.

"Hey where's Suki?" Naruto whispered to Shikamaru who shrugged in response. "Man I hope Kakashi-sensei didn't give her his bad habits."

Up in the Kage booth sat Sarutobi in his long robes and Kage hat with his two guarding ninja. Walking up to him was another man in long robes with blue accents compared to Sarutobi's red and a Kage hat that held the kanji for 'wind' on it and a face scarf to hide most of his face.

"Ah Kazekage-dono I am glad you are here. I hope the trip wasn't too long," the Sandaime said.

"Oh no it was fine Hokage-dono. Very little trouble along the way." the Kazekage said. "I can't wait to see how these matches go. My kids have made it to the finals so I would like to see us start."

"Of course, of course." The Sandaime gave a curt nod to Genma who caught the gesture from the corner of his eye and decided it was time to start.

"Welcome to the Chūnin Exam finals!" Genma yelled letting his voice echo across the stadium. "The first round will be Hyuuga Neji against Uzumaki Naruto! Will all other competitors please head to the waiting box!" everyone on the ground left except for three people leaving Naruto and Neji staring at each other with Genma to the side. 'Man I can feel the tension between these two.'

Naruto stretched his arms and loosened up his body. Checking his equipment, he felt for his kunai and shuriken holster, the gloves clipped to his belt, and his hip pouch. While this was happening his eyes never left Neji's.

'Don't worry Hinata I'll teach Neji a lesson for you,' Naruto thought.

* * *

_"Neji nii-san isn't a bad person, N-Naruto-kun. There have just been...p-problems in our family," Hinata stuttered as Naruto faced her. "Please help him. For me." Naruto stayed silent before smiling and walking past the confused girl. _

_"Ya know if you hadn't come talk to me I would have used all my power to kick your cousin's ass," Hinata blushed at Naruto's choice of words but he continued. "But you really care for him and that says something about you." Naruto continued to walk towards the stadium and looked over his shoulder. _

_"I used to think you were really quiet and weird but I know that you sill care deeply about others. Haha ya know I like people like you."_

* * *

"You look like you have something you want to say," Neji said to Naruto. Naruto finished stretching and held his fist out to the pale eyed boy.

"Only what I said to you before. I'm going to kick your ass. But now I'm doing it for another reason." Genma stepped between the boys and held his hand up.

"Are you both ready?" the two Genin nodded. "Alright then, FIGHT!" Genma dashed backwards waiting for the clash but none happened. Naruto looked at Neji who stood there with his arms crossed and a superior smirk on his face.

Up in the stands many people were confused as to why Naruto, the most hyperactive ninja, did nothing. None were more confused than his fellow Genin in the audience who had decided to get seats together.

"What's going on? They're just looking at each other," Kiba said. "I would have expected Naruto to start immediately."

"Yeah what gives forehead?" Ino asked Sakura.

"I don't know? Maybe he has a plan," right after Sakura said that Naruto squatted down and jumped but to the surprise of many he jumped backwards in a number backflips till he was a good distance away from Neji.

"This should enough to surprise him," Naruto muttered before walking forward. His casual walk sped up till he was sprinting at the still Neji who uncrossed his arms with a shake of his head.

"A frontal attack? I thought you were smarter, but I guess not," Neji said in condescending tone.

"Oi you idiot! I said do something but I didn't mean do something stupid!" Ino yelled. Naruto grinned as he closed the distance and just as Neji lunged forward with a palm strike Naruto's form blurred from view. Neji looked shocked and turned his head side to side hastily to look for the blonde. A second after that Naruto blurred back into focus behind Neji and threw out a harsh kick to Neji's back. The Hyuuga was sent sprawling forward and looked behind his back in fury.

"I wanted to learn a move to use in battle that didn't take hand seals in that battle like Shunshin to raise my speed. However, I was limited for the month I was given. I didn't have the patience to learn Soru (Shave) and how to stomp my feet so many times and Shundo (Instant Movement) seemed like it had a lot of drawbacks until I could master it. I wanted to learn Shunpo (Flash Steps) but as I said before the month time limit given didn't give me enough time to raise my speed to a needed level and don't even get me started on how the hell Sonido (Sound Ceremony) is used. So I decided to use something right now that compliments my abnormal chakra reserves." After Naruto's little summary he again blurred from sight and appeared a few feet in front of Neji. "I learned Hirenkyaku (Flying Screen Step)."

Back up in the stands the Konoha Genin and other contestants were amazed. "Alright Naruto kick ass!" Kiba yelled.

"Whoa who knew Naruto knew how to start the fight?" Ino said shocked.

Neji seethed but then composed himself and stood back up. "That was surprising I must say. But let's see you try that again." Naruto grinned and dropped low.

"Gladly," his form blurred and this time he appeared to the side of Neji. Naruto was shocked when he threw out a punch and Neji dodged to the side while throwing a palm strike that sent Naruto reeling back. Naruto landed on the ground and slid a bit before popping himself up. He coughed a bit and looked at the other boy who was smirking.

"Did you forget who my sensei was? You may be faster now, possibly as fast as Lee, but I've been learning how to fight people using speed for longer than you've been a Genin," Neji said. "So what do you have to say to that?"

Naruto chuckled and that chuckle turned to a full blown laugh that made Neji and Genma confused. "You know what I say Neji," Naruto stated getting up and dusting off his clothes. "I say that I think I'm going to like fighting you!" Naruto blurred forward and Neji activated his Byakugan. The First round of the Finals had begun.

* * *

**I will no longer be underlining moves. I find that it distracts from the whole story. Plus it becomes bothersome sorry, but if you really want them still them tell me and I'll do them for the next chapter.**


	10. Let the Mimic Kick Now

Chapter 10: Let the Mimic Kick Now

**Welcome to the next update. This chapter focuses on Naruto vs. Neji and is basically what I hope is one of the best fight scenes you've ever read because I really wanted this to be a memorable chapter for everyone. Prepare yourselves!**

**Intro Music ON: STFU by Girugamesh**

**Cover: Naruto standing in the middle of the stadium. His hands are raised towards the heavens and the sunlight shines upon him. He is wearing the special gloves and the light from the sky casts a glow around the boy. The crowd is nothing but a blur to the boy as his focus is set towards the sky. An orange ring of chakra spins around his feet blowing up a slight dust cloud.**

* * *

Naruto blurred forward and appeared behind Neji who didn't even turn around to send a kick at the blonde. Naruto quickly crossed his arms and blocked the kick while gritting his teeth as he slid back. With a growl, he slid to a stop and then ran at Neji's exposed back and threw a punch towards the back of the boy's head. Neji tilted his head to the side and then grabbed Naruto's arm. Neji flipped Naruto over his shoulder and Naruto landed on the ground with a grunt. Taking advantage of Naruto's prone form Neji shot out his hand to strike the blonde's chest.

"Shit!" Naruto kicked himself up and narrowly dodged Neji's finger jab. Using Hirenkyaku once more, Naruto rushed away so he had some distance between him and the Hyuuga. "How the hell do you keep blocking me?" Naruto asked out.

"Haven't you learned fool? With my eyes I have no weak points. Plus now I see how you use that technique of yours," Neji said.

"Well don't tell the whole world asshole. Dammit I forgot you could see chakra and all the way around you from the prelims. But just cause you can see my chakra doesn't mean you'll know where I'll end up," Naruto countered. Naruto vanished once more and reappeared above Neji. He quickly transformed his arm and shot it down, "Gomu Gomu no Pistoru!" Neji dodged to the side and frowned.

'The idiot is right. I can see how he gathers an amazing amount of chakra under his feet then use it to almost slide from one spot to the other but I can't determine where he will end up. However that doesn't matter. I've trained with Lee and Gai-sensei. Not only am I also fast but with my 360 degree vision he can't surprise me,' Neji thought. Neji looked at the arm that passed him and was finally able to observe it up close. "Amazing. Even his chakra pathways are stretching. His move truly stretches his arm like rubber," the Hyuuga muttered. Before he could strike it with a Jyuuken (Gentle Fist) Naruto brought back his fist and his arm turned normal once more.

* * *

Tenten smirked up in the stands as she watched Naruto try to catch Neji by surprise. The kid may be strong but Neji was on a completely different level.

"Blondie is going to lose," Tenten said. Sakura and Ino looked over at the other girl and frowned.

"What are you talking about? Naruto won't lose," Sakura said. Tenten was sitting a few seats above the girls and stared down at them. Kiba and Hinata also stared at Tenten with a confused frown.

"Neji can't be beaten. He is the strongest Genin from our class and a prodigy when it comes to the Hyuuga family taijutsu. Your teammate might be strong but he will lose," Tenten said.

"No way Naruto would lose to that guy! I underestimated Naruto but because of that I lost. Here and now I know that idiot will win," Kiba said while Akamaru barked in agreement. Hinata nodded with her teammate and looked back down towards the arena floor.

'G-good luck N-Naruto-kun,' Hinata thought while tapping her fingers together. Tenten shook her head and moved her head back to the fight.

"Believe what you want. Neji will not lose."

* * *

Naruto slid across the ground as he dodged another strike from Neji. The boy huffed and brushed the dirt from his pants. Standing tall he took a deep breath and smirked.

"You sure are one tough opponent ya know that." Neji scoffed and brushed a strand of hair away from his face looking much better than his opponent.

"Like I said there is no way you will beat me. Fate dictates that you are the loser of this match," Neji said. Naruto blew a raspberry while closing his eyes and made a shooing motion with his hand.

"You keep saying Fate this and Fate that. Well Fate can kiss my ass."

"Fate is what rules all. It is what says that I will win and that you will never be Hokage." Naruto's eyes snapped open at that and he growled.

"Oh now Fate can definitely kiss my ass! No one tells me that I won't be Hokage. First I'll kick your ass then I'll kick Fate's! Kage bunshin no jutsu!" the arena was then clouded in smoke and once it cleared around forty Narutos could be seen.

* * *

"Wow that kid can create that many clones? He sure has a lot of chakra," said Kotetsu while he wrote down a few notes.

"Yeah but if he doesn't use them smartly than he doesn't deserve the title of Chūnin," Izumo replied.

* * *

Neji looked at all the surrounding clones and frowned. He couldn't determine who the real one was at the moment because each clone had a separate chakra channel. These weren't normal clones after all.

"Attack-!" a random Naruto shouted. There was a yell of approval from the rest of the blondes and that opened the flood gate for the small army of clones to attack. Neji clenched his teeth as he dodged a Naruto and then jabbed it with his fingers dispelling the clone in a cloud of smoke. Two Narutos ran to the side of the boy and threw out their arms hoping to hit Neji at the same time. Neji bent backwards and let the arms pass by his face. With quick movements he jabbed the two arms and dispersed the clones. As three clones rushed forward at Neji another Naruto ran then dropped down to slide at the boy from behind.

"Foolish," Neji muttered. "A back attack is never going to work." Naruto grinned and his sliding form vanished then appeared under and in front of Neji. "What?"

"U-!" A kick to Neji's chin sent him up. The three clones sped to the sides of the airborne boy.

"Zu-!"

"Ma-!"

"Ki!" Each syllable was paired with a kick that sent Neji spinning farther up to a Naruto that was waiting for him above.

"Naruto Rendan!" the axe kick that fell towards Neji was stopped by said boy's hand.

"Enough of this madness!" Neji roared in fury losing his composure. He continued to spin while bringing along a passenger and then threw Naruto down towards a bunch of clones that stood in front of the forested area of the stadium. The blonde hit the clones and all of them went up in smoke. Neji landed gracefully onto the ground and wiped the blood away from his mouth. "I am done fooling around with you. Here I come," Neji sprinted forward easily meandering around the clones and stopping in front of what he though was the original. "Letting your clones attack while you stayed in the back and watched was never going to work. My Byakugan easily locked onto you," Neji said as he struck the Naruto in front of him with a Jyuuken in the stomach. The boy hunched over and coughed out blood and Neji smirked as the rest of the blondes around him went up in smoke. "It's over for you failure."

The blonde Genin grasped the arm that struck him and grinned. "Sorry but you failed this time," Neji's eyes widened in disbelief when the boy he thought was real dispel in smoke. Spinning around he saw five Narutos surround him as they flew in the air. "You may be able to counter a couple but let's see you stop all five of us!" each Naruto yelled as they descended on Neji. Neji closed his eyes to calm himself and then opened them slowly as he started to spin on his heel.

"Hakkeshō Kaiten (Eight Trigrams Palm Rotation)!" Neji yelled as he spun faster and a dome of chakra formed around him, spinning in the direction he was. All the Narutos hit the dome and then bounced off of the shield.

* * *

"See that my daughter," Hyuuga Hiashi said to his youngest daughter Hanabi. "That boy there is a true prodigy of our taijutsu." The eleven year old girl looked up at her father in confusion.

"But father is he not from the branch house? How does he know that move?" Hanabi asked.

"His will is much stronger than any other Hyuuga I have seen, except for one other..." Hiashi finished quietly. 'Brother what have I brought your son too?'

* * *

"What the hell! What was that?" Ino yelled. She was expecting Naruto to have hit the white eyed boy with his clones but that last move baffled her.

"That is Neji's ultimate defense. Nothing can penetrate the Hyuuga's Kaiten," Tenten answered. "Like I said, your friend has no chance against Neji. His defense is even better than that sand user Gaara."

"Just you wait," Sakura whispered. "If I know Naruto then I know he has something unpredictable planned."

* * *

Each and every Naruto that was hit by the Kaiten blew up in smoke much to Neji's frustration.

"Man you didn't even let me transform those clones," a voice called out from the smoke while the body was hidden from the view of the audience. The ninja smoke blew away and Naruto was standing across from Neji with his arms crossed in front of his chest.

"Please do not think that that would have worked," Neji said back. "I am not that Inuzuka that you faced during the prelims. If you keep up with your fighting I will be forced to get serious." Naruto laughed.

"So you weren't serious back there? I made you reveal that Kaiten of yours."

"Do not flatter yourself. I only needed to show that I am strong to the examiners."

"Fine if you say so. Then I guess you won't mind me showing my skills then!" Naruto grinned and summoned ten clones behind him. "Are you ready Neji cause here I come." The group of blondes all faded from view and appeared above the white eyed Genin surrounding him from all sides.

Naruto glanced at his clones and then focused back on Neji.

* * *

_"So Naruto show me this mimic attack or whatever it is you've thought of," Jiraiya said as Naruto faced him with a bunch clones behind the boy. _

_"Well after I tried hitting you with my Maneryū: Gōkakyū the last time I've been thinking of how I can truly use my clones. I have a bunch of ideas but this one came to me when I was thinking of a new speed move for me to use. There is speed technique from this show and manga I know that is good but it has drawbacks that I can't overcome at the moment," Naruto said. "But there is another attack I wanna use now that I can truly change my clones." Naruto tensed his body and put his hands into a seal. _

* * *

"Coèuntes, sagittent inimicum meam. Come together, and strike my enemy..." Naruto's clones all went up in smoke with a hand seal from the original. Neji scowled as his Byakugan took in the various changes in chakra. "Maneryū: Sagitta Magica, Series Flamma (Mimic the Flow: Magic Arrows, Series of Flames)!" Out of the clouds of smoke from the transformations ten streams of fire in the shape of arrows shot down.

"Even with this attack you cannot pierce my defense! Kaiten!" Neji yelled as he spun. The thin beams of fire flew at the dome then ricocheted off and shot in different directions. A few fiery arrows struck the walls of the stadium and dented the stone while also charring it before disappearing. Another group flew into the sky while one single arrow of fire flew to the examiners booth.

* * *

"Get down!" Izumo yelled. The Magic Arrow hit the wall behind the examiner's booth while the Chūnin judging the match ducked quickly. The projectile of fire struck the wall and the cloth that covered it slowly started to go up in flames.

"Holy crap! Put it out put it out!" Kotetsu yelled. He and Izumo rushed to put out the fire while the other ninja in the booth ran through seals for a water jutsu. Just then the fire that licked the tarp popped away in a cloud of smoke leaving a partly burned curtain and a group of confused Chūnin.

"Did the fire go out on its own?" Kotetsu asked.

"I think so," Izumo answered. They both looked back to the fight and grabbed their clipboards. "What a fight..."

* * *

Takuma and Emi stood in the crowd looking at the match. Both had a smile on their face as Naruto fought the Hyuuga boy.

"Look at that nii-san, Naruto-kun is surprising everyone here!" Emi said excitedly.

"He'll win this I know it," Takuma smiled as the crowd roared in excitement.

* * *

Neji slowed his spinning and a swirl of dust and dirt blew around him like a fog. Once he was almost done a figure sprang from the cloud of dirt.

"I knew if I got you spinning, that one moment where you stopped would be your weak point. All I had to do was wait for you!" Naruto yelled as he pulled his glowing fist back. "And now you can't use that Kaiten again until you regain your footing so block this! Shottogan!" From Naruto's right fist a bombardment of small chakra pellets flew out as he threw it forward.

'Shit he's right! He got me at the point where I'm still not fully set after my Rotation. Damn, calm down. It's fine I'll just crush his hopes with this...' Neji thought as the chakra shots flew at him. He knew he could not dodge them all but he still had to get his footing so Neji dodged the first couple that passed him while getting clipped by one. Narrowing his eyes Neji threw out his palm.

"Hakke," just as his palm was about to hit a blue pellet he twisted his wrist and let the chakra in his palm out to trail behind his hand. "Tate Shō (Eight Trigrams Shield Palm)!" Neji continued to throw his hands out quickly and his strikes deflected all of Naruto's Shotgun bullets. When the last of Naruto's attack was blocked Neji took a breath and flicked his hand down. "That it?"

* * *

"A-amazing," Hinata whispered. "I-I've never e-even heard of t-that move." Kiba looked shocked at his teammates stuttered comment and looked back down to Naruto.

"He created that?... Uh oh, good luck Naruto."

* * *

'God dammit! Now what am I going to do?' Naruto thought. 'I don't want to reveal all of my moves this first round. If I get a chance then I'll have to end it with THAT. I don't want use my First.' Naruto took a deep breath and let the air fill his lungs. He exhaled slowly and dropped back into a fighting stance.

"You keep getting better and better Neji. But as I said before I'm not going to lose this match." Naruto said. "I made a promise to Hinata and I never go back on my promises. That is my nindo!"

"Why do you continue to fight for that weakling?" Neji asked. "She is nothing but a failure to her clan. She is a failure like you!"

"Why do you keep saying all these things about her when she does nothing to you? She is your family for Kami's sake."

Neji scoffed and looked into the sky. He was silent for a moment before he spoke once more. "The fact that she is in the main house is enough cause for my hate..."

"Main house?"

"Enough of this. You do not need to hear the facts now." Neji dropped back into his stance. "Perhaps I shall tell you why Fate rules all if you happen to put up a good enough fight." Naruto growled at the comment then placed his hands in a cross seal.

"Kage Bunshin no jutsu!" a cloud of ninja smoke obscured Naruto and when it blew away there were three blondes. "Don't count me out just yet." The three Narutos rushed forward and engaged Neji in taijutsu, making sure to dodge any strike that would harm or dispel them. One Naruto tried to kick Neji's feet out from under him but he jumped quickly to dodge. Another Naruto tried to take advantage of Neji's airborne circumstance but Neji back flipped and stuck his foot out to hit the clone. The Naruto jumped back hastily to make sure it wasn't dispelled and then once again went in for an attack. The fight became a deadly dance of attacking and dodging for the four figures on the arena.

* * *

Up in the contestant box Shikamaru looked down at his fellow Konoha Genin. He didn't think Naruto would have progressed so far but he knew this Neji guy was good. Maybe too good.

"Your friend seems to be having trouble," a voice to Shikamaru's side declared. The pineapple haired boy turned his head and saw Temari staring down at the fight. "He has pulled some amazing things off but even in Suna the name Hyuuga is known. Your friend may not have a chance," Temari said. Shikamaru grunted and looked back down to the fight.

"Don't worry about Naruto," Shikamaru drawled. "Naruto is one of a kind. If you are hoping for a quick win from Neji then I'll tell you now that Naruto will disappoint." Shikamaru heard a call of 'Henge' from the floor and smiled. "And there ya go."

* * *

"Henge!" two Narutos yelled that had attached themselves to Neji's legs. Their bodies transformed and were replaced by a chain and iron ball that weighed him down while the other Naruto grabbed Neji from behind. Pulling the boy into a full-nelson the Naruto grinned.

"I've got you now."

"Don't be ridiculous. I know that these weights will dispel away once they run out of chakra. Once they do I'll finish you off for your ignorance of being this close," Neji said behind his back.

"I don't have to hold you for long," the Naruto that held Neji chuckled. "Just until he hits you."

"He? Wait, you're a clone!" Neji looked toward the forest where a snapping sound was heard and Naruto was kneeling under a tree. The boy walked out from the shade and was holding his right wrist while his hand was starting to slowly become enveloped by a mass of chakra. "How?"

"I transformed myself into a field mouse while I sent my clones towards you," Naruto said cutting off Neji's full question. "While you were intently focused on them I scurried behind you into the trees to change back so I would be able to get a good view while charging as much as I can. Hold on Ichi cause I only got one shot at this."

The now identified Ichi nodded his head and gripped tighter at the struggling Neji.

"Ye lord. Mask of flesh and bone, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man. Truth and temperance..."

* * *

"No way. He isn't going to do what I think he is going to do?" Kiba said.

"What's wrong? What is Naruto doing?" Ino asked.

"From what we have seen so far Naruto has been doing moves that resemble techniques from various shows. That arrow one he did is probably from something he's seen but I'm not familiar with it. But the chant he is starting is something I know of," Kiba explained.

"Then what is Naruto doing now?" Sakura asked.

"The chant signifies the start of a strong attack."

* * *

"Upon this sinless wall of dreams unleash but slightly the wrath of your claws." Naruto sang out as he held his hand forward while it glowed with power. His arm started to shake and he bit his lip in concentration to the point to where it bled.

"Let go you insufferable clone!" Neji yelled as he struggled against Ichi.

"Not going to happen Neji!" Ichi called back.

"Hadō no Sanjūsan!" Naruto ran forward a few steps then threw his palm out and yelled, "SŌKATSUI (Destructive Art #33 Blue Fire, Crash Down)!" A great blast of shining blue chakra the size of Naruto himself burst from his hand and careened towards Neji. Its edges blurred giving the chakra ball the likeness of fire as it flew at Neji.

Neji's eyes widened in horror and panic as the ball of energy flew at him and he tried struggling once more but it was to no avail. "It cannot end like! I will not lose!" Neji roared. "I am a Hyuuga!"

The Sōkatsui made impact and an explosion came forth that blew up a cloud of dust. Naruto dropped to one knee while holding his arm and took great gulps of air.

"I did it," the blonde said between gasps. "I got him with it." Naruto struggled to get up and walked forward confident he would find the unconscious form of Neji on the ground. Suddenly the dust cloud dispersed in a swirl of air that made Naruto hold his arms to his eyes. He narrowed his eyes to try and see what was going on and when Naruto was finally able to determine what was happening his heart dropped.

In the epicenter of the blowing dirt and dust was a giant dome of spinning chakra that was swirling at amazing speeds. When the swirling stopped and the chakra dome vanished there stood Neji with his arms out and feet spread apart.

"How? What? When? Why?" Naruto babbled.

"Hakkeshō Jitsu Kaiten (Eight Trigrams Palm True Rotation)," Neji answered cutting off Naruto not unlike how the blonde did to him moments ago. "A true impenetrable defense without the need to move. Your farce is over. Your clones are gone and you are too tired to use that Hirenkyaku. You are now within the field of my divination." Neji dropped down so that his back hand was raised high and his other was dropped low with his legs bent slightly.

* * *

"That move! That stance! Kami how far has his hatred pushed Neji?" Hiashi gasped.

"Father what is the Jitsu Kaiten?" Hanabi asked.

"A last resort defensive move Hanabi. It takes much more chakra than the regular Kaiten but it gets rid of the drawbacks of spinning and that interval of time where you are open for an attack after. But Hanabi please watch what happens next," Hanabi stared at her father confused, "A move that shouldn't be known to a Branch house member, let alone a Genin level ninja."

* * *

"Hakke Rokujūyon Shō (Eight Trigrams Sixty-four Palms)!" Neji sprang forward and jabbed Naruto with his fingers twice while yelling the number of times he hit him. Naruto coughed and stumbled backwards trying to put up a defense but Neji pushed forward. He jabbed Naruto again doubling his strikes causing the blonde to cry out. Neji started to speed up his finger strikes and doubled the number of attacks he would hit Naruto with. Finally coming to sixty-four strikes, Neji yelled out the number of times he hit Naruto and ended with a powerful palm thrust that sent Naruto tumbling backwards.

Naruto lay on the ground coughing up blood as he groaned in pain. His eyes fluttered open and he looked towards where Neji was standing.

"Proctor, call the match," Neji said to Genma. Naruto gasped in pain and rolled over onto his stomach. He didn't want it to end this way. Everyone was looking at him, appraising how he was doing. He would not give up.

"Well if the blonde won't get up the winner is-."

"No don't stop!" Naruto yelled out as he pushed himself up slowly. "I'm not out of this just yet."

"Why do you continue to get up?" Neji called out. 'Impossible how is he even standing? I closed all the vital tenketsu needed to cast any jutsu. He should be on the ground unconscious.'

Naruto coughed again, spilling blood onto the ground and braced himself against his knees. "Because, because this is my chance to prove your Fate wrong. To show that I was meant for something more than what everyone first though of me," Naruto said between breathes. "This is my fight to fulfill a promise to a friend to save her family and I won't ever give up." Naruto stared Neji straight in the eye showing his conviction.

"You know nothing of our family so it is no business of yours to promise anything to that girl," Negi hissed.

"What is wrong with you? What can be so bad that would cause such tension in a family?"

Neji looked down and reached for his head and took off his headband. When it was removed he looked back towards Naruto showing a Manji symbol with lines coming from the side of it. "This is the Caged Bird Seal of the Hyuuga. All branch house members carry this seal as symbol of their fidelity to the main house. We are the protectors of them. I received this symbol when I was only four when my father was still alive," Neji said.

"My father was the brother of the clan head of the Hyuuga. They were twins. Because my father was born second he was branded a branch house member while my uncle was put into the main house," the stadium seemed oddly quiet to Naruto as he listened to Neji talk about the Hyuuga. "When I was four I finally met my cousin Hinata-sama. She was just as meek and worthless back then as she is now. I remember the day we were watching her and my uncle practice. That was the day I learned what a main house member could do to a branch house member." Neji was silent for a moment.

"What can they do?"

"They can kill us with only a hand seal. My father and I were sitting and watching when he suddenly doubled over screaming in pain. Hiashi-sama walked over to where he was screaming and I was trying to comfort my father and told us to know our place. Do you remember when Kumo tried to kidnap someone from the Hyuuga disguising it as a peace conference?"

"I vaguely remember hearing about that when I was younger."

"Kumo had tried to steal Hinata-sama during their 'peace' negations. When my uncle killed the kidnapper it was my father that was given as retribution. Kumo thinking it was Hiashi-sama accepted my father without knowing that our seal made it impossible to harvest the Byakugan. My father died as a replacement because of this seal!"

* * *

"Wow that's some pretty heavy stuff," Takuma said. The crowd was not as quiet as Naruto was thinking and was still yelling for the match to continue. Many had no desire to learn of the dark history of the Hyuuga. The only people who were listening intently seemed to be the people at the front. For example Takuma could see a Hyuuga in the front row with a grimace on his face as Neji spoke. 'That might be the Hyuuga Clan head that Neji guy is yapping about.'

"Uh oh." Emi said.

"What"

"That Hyuuga boy shouldn't have said that to Naruto-kun."

* * *

"You, with your constant smiles and idiot like demeanor, you have no idea what it's like. You have no idea what it is like to have a seal ruling your life, ruining it and labeling you," Neji yelled at Naruto.

Naruto froze for a second and his head dropped so his hair shadowed his eyes. The pain of feeling alone and the memories of past flooded him. He had no idea?

"Yeah, yeah I know what you mean," Naruto whispered.

"Excuse me?"

"I said I know exactly how you feel!" Naruto screamed while raising his head up. Neji recoiled at sheer emotion in the boy's sapphire eyes. "I know what it's like so you don't have to tell me. You aren't the only one who is suffering plus what about Hinata? She seems like she really wants to connect with you but all you've done is push her away, even going as far as to crush her emotionally and hurt her. You say the branch house is supposed to protect the main but if that is true than you have been disregarding your duties. You have been defying Fate!"

"Enough. You cannot fight any longer. Your tenketsu are closed so you can no longer access chakra," Neji said. "Just give up or I will be forced to truly finish you."

'Damn he's right. I can't feel my chakra. I need something to get my chakra going,' Naruto thought as he closed his eyes to try and access his chakra. 'Anything.' Naruto felt a rush within his brain and when he opened his eyes he was no longer in the arena. He was within his mind scape in front of the Kyūbi.

"**Anything boy?**"

Naruto stared at the giant fox with hazy eyes. "Just enough to open my chakra points. I only need a little so I can use my own chakra. This is my battle," Naruto breathed.

The Kyūbi let out a malicious laugh and a small stream of chakra flowed towards Naruto. The boy looked at the crimson energy apprehensively but let it come seeing as it would give him the ability to use his own chakra. Suddenly a wave of red chakra came forth from the cage that housed the demon Kitsune while it laughed madly.

"No no no NO! What are you doing you stupid fox?" Naruto yelled as the chakra engulfed him and he was thrown from his mind.

"**You asked for it boy!**" the Kyūbi cackled as Naruto left.

* * *

"Proctor I am going in for killing blow now," Neji said while Naruto was hunched over suddenly. "It is your choice to stop me."

"Humph cocky brat," Genma whispered and started to raise his hand. Just then the two people other than Naruto who were on the arena floor felt a great pressure upon them.

"W-What is this," Neji grit out. He slowly raised his head to look at Naruto and gasped.

Around Naruto the small rocks and pebbles started to roll towards him and rise slightly into the air like an unseen force was lifting them. The air around him became distorted and blurry. Suddenly the boy threw his head back and let out a scream.

"GRAGHHHHHHH!" red chakra exploded off of Naruto and encompassed him. Wind howled and buffeted Genma and Neji as Naruto clenched his fist against the great amount of power he was emitting.

'This air, it actually hurts!' Neji thought while he covered his face with his arms. Across the whole arena everyone could feel the uncontrolled power that emanated from Naruto.

* * *

"Shit this isn't good," Asuma said as he covered his eyes. "The kid is using too much of Kyūbi's chakra." He and Kurenai were in the front row seeing as both their students were in the finals. But even if they were close all the ninjas could feel the power from Naruto and the oppressive aura he was giving.

"Should we stop the match?" Kurenai yelled over the wind.

"I don't know if we can!"

* * *

"Dammit!" Naruto yelled as he felt the changes that Kyūbi's chakra did to him start to take effect. His hands were clenching and unclenching, no doubt changing into claws, and his canines felt sharper. 'If I don't get control of this then I'm going to go berserk!' Looking to his side Naruto quickly grabbed the gloves he received and held them up. 'I didn't want use this but because of the fox this is the only way to direct this power in my own way.'

Through the flurry of swirling chakra and wind, Naruto slipped on the gloves and let the metal plating set onto his fingers. Clenching his eyes he held his hands up but a voice rang through his mind cutting off his motions.

"**Foolish boy, you think you can control my power!**" Kyūbi's voice rang out maliciously.

Neji, who was no longer covering his eyes, stared at Naruto in amazement. His Byakugan had showed him a collective mass of chakra starting from Naruto's navel course through the boy. The red chakra then swirled into a pattern of a fox that caused Neji to recoil in fright. 'What is this?'

'Shut it fox! You chose to give this much power and now I'm using it in my own way. Once you pumped me full of this chakra it became mine now,' Naruto thought as he slowly brought his hands together.

"**My power is absolute. You will never be able to harness it!**"

'Your power is mine! Mine... To...,' Naruto's hands finally clasped together forming a seal. "TRANSFORM!" Naruto finished his inner conversation aloud yelling the last word for all to here. An explosion of smoke rocked the floor and covered Naruto completely. What made Neji wary was the fact that the smoke was laced with the red chakra so his Byakugan couldn't see through the cloud.

"I'm glad it worked with this chakra," Naruto's voice was heard but Neji tilted his head at the sound of this voice. It sounded much calmer, more powerful. "But I really didn't want to use this in the first place."

Naruto walked forward eliciting a loud gasp from much of the crowd as he stood casually. Naruto's orange and blue jacket and pants ensemble was replaced by a more civilian looking wardrobe. His ninja sandals were now a pair of white and blue sneakers under black straight jeans. An orange and white t-shirt with a hood attached to the back fluttered slightly in the wind. What were so surprising to many were Naruto's facial features. His once shining blue eyes that were always full of energy were a calm orange like burning embers. Naruto's lack of headband let his golden hair free giving him bangs and a more spiky style. What replaced the hitai-ate just above the point between his eyes was a true phenomenon. Orange chakra sat atop his forehead like a ball of fire flickering to and fro in the breeze.

Naruto's new appearance sent a sense of calm confidence towards Neji. It was like the boy knew that he would win no matter what, and with the powerful presence that the blonde was giving Neji wouldn't doubt it.

"What are you?" Neji asked in a hushed tone. Naruto tilted his head and scratched his cheek with a gloved hand.

"Well I guess I'm your local dobe," Naruto gave a small smile to Neji and raised his hands to the fire like chakra on his head. The instant the gloves touched the chakra they were engulfed in the orange chakra like they were consumed by a flame. "But if you'd like you can call me Hyper Naruto. So then, shall we get started?"

* * *

Up in the stands various reactions were going on.

"Oh Kami is that Naruto! Look at him he actually looks hot!" Ino yelled. "Did you know he could do this forehead?" Sakura shook her head numbly.

"This is all news to me," the pink haired girl replied shocked to the bone.

"Damn look at that!" Kiba laughed. "Who knew he would pull this out of nowhere. Man and I know where this came from too I just can't remember." Kiba rubbed his head as he tried to collect his thoughts.

"D-don't worry K-Kiba-kun," Hinata said. "I'm s-sure it'll come t-to you." Hinata had to admit that Naruto like this looked very dashing.

In another location Asuma and Kurenai breathed a sigh of relief as they felt the bloodlust that accompanied the Kyūbi's power vanish. Though from what they could sense Naruto was still brimming with power even though the only chakra that could be seen was on his hands and forehead.

"Well it looks like he was able to control the chakra," Kurenai said.

"Yeah," Asuma interjected. "But for how long?"

Higher above in the stands Emi is screaming for Naruto.

"Go Naruto-kun! Kick ass! Use those gloves. Give him a good ol' one two!" Emi yelled punching the air.

"Wow so he can use those things," Takuma said as he placed his chin on his fingertips. "Now then Naruto, show them all what they've been missing."

* * *

The Kyūbi roared in anger. It had a chance to make its host go berserk but something happened to cut the evil intent of its chakra. What happened? The Kyūbi slammed its head against the bars and howled again.

"**What did you do human? What have you done?**" A blue glow appeared in front of the gate and the Kitsune narrowed its eyes. The glowing stopped and when the Kyūbi took a good look it roared again. There in front of the bars was an insignia that showed a large pointed shield with a bullet in the middle. Two pistols crossed above the shield with their barrels making an X above. Placed on where the pistols would cross was a seashell with flowing wings to the sides.

"**This isn't over boy! You may have stemmed it but you can't stop it completely!**"

* * *

Neji took a shaky breath as Hyper Naruto took a step forward. In an instant his form flickered from view and Neji felt a viscous blow on his back. He didn't have time to cry out before another blow to his stomach sent him to the side. Once again Neji's scream was cut off as he was hit by some unseen force and pushed towards a new direction. Before long the white eyed boy looked like he was bouncing back and forth in a small circle like a pinball.

Neji was finally able to let a yell of pain escape his lips when he was thrown into the air. Too much of the audience it looked like Neji had a very violent seizure but to high ranked ninja they could tell what was happening. Naruto was moving at such high speeds that he was hitting Neji countless times and then juggling the boy side to side to side. But what baffled many of the ninja, including Genma who was observing up close, was that Naruto would only appear for a second as a blur then move again. The boy was fast, very fast.

Hyper Naruto finally stopped moving and stood with his back to Neji as the boy fell. He looked behind his back and scratched his head with a sheepish look on his face when Neji landed on the ground with a grunt.

"Sorry bout that," Naruto slowly said. "I don't exactly know my full capabilities when I'm like this so if you get beat up a lot, my bad." Neji pushed himself up with a groan and held one of the marks on his arms. The chakra may not be fire but there was so much of it that it still burned.

'That speed. He is even faster than Lee now! What happened? When he used that other move I was able to keep up but now it's different. I need to be cautious.' Neji spit out a glob of blood and pulled a soldier pill from his hip pouch. As he popped it into his mouth and swallowed he felt a rush of energy flow through his body. Naruto tilted his head.

"I seem to recall you not wanting me to compare you to Kiba earlier," Hyper Naruto called out. "But if I remember he used those same pills."

"Soldier pills are ninja tools. Almost all ninja use them, not just the Inuzuka family." Neji rolled his neck and got into the Hyuuga taijutsu stance. "It revitalizes the user exponentially for a time." Neji rushed forward and Naruto did too. Neji lunged with his fingers trying to jab at Naruto but much to his frustration the blonde would dodge each strike fluidly. With a growl Neji blurred out of view and appeared behind Naruto. Naruto's orange eyes widened and he jumped into the air letting the other boy's hand fly under him. He vanished in midair and reappeared a few feet away on the ground.

"I didn't know you could move like that."

Neji snorted and glared at the spot Naruto just was. "Hyuugas are masters of chakra control. It is a simple matter to direct chakra to my muscles to allow me to move in such a way. I don't use this style of fighting very much but I believe this would be an appropriate time to use it."

"I'll say. My Hyper Intuition barely picked up that last attack." Naruto crossed his arms in front of his face. "Well then, shall we start the second act?" Neji didn't respond and only tightened his stance. "I'll take that as a yes!" Hyper Naruto uncrossed his arms and the chakra on his forehead and gloves flared up and he rushed forward. Neji jumped high while Naruto threw his fist out, hitting the ground and creating a deep crater.

"Hakke Tate Shō!" Neji brought down his palms letting chakra trail from his hand while spinning his body. Naruto dodged the palm strikes but saw that he had twin ribbons of chakra closing in on him. With a curse he let out a blast of chakra from his hands and jumped high above the swirling trap. Neji didn't let Naruto get comfortable and went to hit him while he landed.

"Damn!" Naruto said dodging once more. However Neji was getting faster and more precise with his strikes and finally landed a blow on Naruto's shoulder. The boy let out a bark of pain and threw his hands up to guard Neji's fingers. 'I can't keep this up for long. Even if I channeled Kyūbi's chakra so that I didn't go berserk, I still can't get rid of the true nature of this chakra. With so much centered at my brain I can feel it slowly trying to take me over,' Naruto thought as he lifted his leg to kick at Neji's stomach. 'It may give me The Hyper Intuition but it comes with a cost. I wonder how much difference this would be if I got to do this the way I had planned, with my own chakra.' Naruto let another burst of chakra out from his hands giving him a boost to throw a back flipping kick at Neji's chin.

'I'm ok for now. I can still keep this form up for a little longer. With the potency of this chakra I seem to have a bigger time frame than if I used my chakra. I just have to keep my mind calm so the chakra won't make me go crazy.' Neji cut off Naruto's thoughts by flipping over the blonde and clipping him on the shoulder, but not without receiving a vicious kick to the face. Both boys skid to away from each other and stood staring at one another. Both looked tired and beaten, breathing hard as their muscles screamed in agony.

"I think...we've given...a pretty good performance," Hyper Naruto said between short breathes. Neji said nothing and continued to bring air into his lungs. "How bout we finish this?" Naruto took one more deep breath from his hunched form and stood tall. A burst of orange from his hands pushed him up and he continued to rise higher in the air till he was level with the first row of audience members. Neji also took a breath and stood straight while gathering as much chakra as he could. He wasn't surprised at Naruto flying. After getting over his initial shock and fighting the boy he was finally able to recognize who Naruto was mimicking. He may be a Hyuuga prodigy but he was still a teenage boy and the shows on the television were entertaining.

* * *

"H-he's flying?" Emi stuttered as Naruto flew up. "I've never heard of a ninja being able to fly! Is it those gloves that are letting him do this Takuma?"

Takuma shook his head still a bit shocked at how the battle was going. He probably wasn't the only one amazed seeing as the crowd was in a frenzy, loving the action. They seemed to have forgotten the oppressive aura Naruto was giving off at first and were now ogling the fight.

"I don't think it's just the gloves Emi," Takuma answered. "Most of what we are seeing is all Naruto. The gloves are a tool like any other tool we sell; only they are one of a kind passed down through our family only. This is the birth of a legend Emi. And we helped make it." Takuma chuckled.

* * *

Naruto looked down at Neji and Neji looked up at Naruto. Both knew this would be the final attack. Their final confrontation. Blue chakra started to secrete off Neji in a fine mist as he closed his eyes and spread his arms. Naruto lifted his right hand into the air while his other kept him aloft. The orange chakra engulfing his hand shrank looking like it would die out. In an instant it erupted and the chakra encompassing his hand grew to a point to where it was almost as long as his arm and as wide as his shoulders. It flared and flickered like a glorious fire and cast a glow upon his face.

"Here I come." Naruto tilted forward before bursting forth and flying at Neji at incredible speeds. Neji waited till Naruto was close before unleashing his move while letting out a yell.

"Hakkeshō Jitsu Kaiten!" Every ounce of chakra Neji could spare was pushed into this move and as he yelled out his jutsu a huge dome of spinning chakra surrounded him and shined blue.

Naruto also let out a roar as he reached the dome. He brought his fist down and his punch, covered in the great amount of chakra, clashed with the swirling dome of chakra. A moment of silence seemed to permeate the arena just before the two forces met and then a low boom was heard. Air and chakra blasted out as Naruto's form pushed into the giant True Rotation.

Genma covered his eyes and grit his teeth as he pushed chakra to his feet to keep him in place. "God dammit what are these kids made of!" Waves of powerful wind buffeted the crowd, even going so far as to hit the Kage box much to the Sandaime's shock. Orochimaru, still disguised as the Kazekage, widened his eyes.

'This power? What amazing power you have Naruto-kun!' Orochimaru thought. 'If I bring Suki to me I may even get you to come too!'

Naruto pushed harder against the dome and could see the form of Neji through the chakra. With a yell Naruto pushed with all his might and felt his fingers breaking through. Neji saw this and exerted more force into his jutsu, trying to bounce Naruto off.

"Why?" Neji yelled through the howling wind. "Why do you try so hard? Why do you keep going when you know that Fate controls everything? Why can't you just accept Fate?"

"Because!" Naruto yelled back. "Because I believe that we control our own destiny! If you believe in Fate that's fine but I won't be chained by it! You tell me it is your Fate to be cursed with servitude by that seal!" Naruto pushed harder and felt his hand shake from effort but he knew he was breaking through. "You do nothing to change your clan and say everything is ruled by Fate! Fine then I say don't do anything Neji. If it's too hard for you to change your clan, then don't because I'll change it for you!"

Naruto's hand broke through and time seemed to slow as he slowly flew down towards the shocked Neji. "When I become Hokage no one will suffer like that ever again. Believe in me Neji," Naruto said with his hand forward and fingers splayed in a welcoming gesture, his orange eyes glowing with a look of sadness. Neji looked in wonder as Naruto fell looking like an ethereal being with the chakra on his head and hands. He also slowly reached forward with a look of hope.

The instant time seemed normal for the two again an explosion blossomed forth. A bright light blinded everyone and a cloud of dust billowed forth. Genma coughed and tried to wave away the dirt.

"Who won? Who won?" Ino screamed as the dust slowly started to disperse. Sakura held her hands in worry and peered into the smoke.

"Naruto."

The arena cleared and two silhouettes were starting to appear. Neji was lying on the ground face up with his hand out. Grasping that hand and standing tall was Naruto, his form once again normal and the orange chakra gone. His blue eyes looked down at the Hyuuga and he squeezed his gloved hand and smiled.

"Believe in Faith not Fate. Believe in the future Hokage," Naruto said letting the whole arena hear his proclamation. Neji was silent for a moment before sighing and letting go of Naruto's hand.

"My faith is in you, Naruto. I can no longer fight," Neji said. That was all the signal Genma needed to walk forward and hold up Naruto's now free hand.

"The First round of the Chūnin exams is complete. Winner is Uzumaki Naruto, the Mimic!" The crowd roared and clapped with approval at the amazing battle. Naruto looked up at Genma oddly who shrugged his shoulders.

"Congrats kid. You've gotten yourself a nickname courtesy of me." Naruto continued to stare at Genma oddly before shrugging and walking forward. He smiled and raised his arms into the sky.

"I did it!"


	11. Like Toy Shinobi

Chapter 11: Like Toy Shinobi

**And now we move onward through the Ch****ū****nin exam. The matches come to a close and the invasion begins. I know I wanted this chapter out like two days ago but midterms can be a real pain in the ass. Seriously. Anyways hope you like this chapter everyone and expect another soon since this is what begins a new story for our heroes.**

**Also I would like you all to know that if you do not know already, I am reposting and continuing the story Key Through the Heart the original. I am basically keeping it the same except for changing a few things or adding things that will be beneficial to how I am continuing it. You can find it named Key Through the Heart: Rebirth. Let me know your thoughts on it and if you ever wanted to see a chapter redone, now's the time to tell me. **

**Also I would like to thank the DragonBard. You have been a great help in giving ideas on the future of this story and also helping me get this Ch****ū****nin exam arc pushed to a close. I couldn't have done it without you.**

**Intro Music ON: STFU by Girugamesh**

**Cover: Naruto standing on toad and pointing a Spirit Gun forward. Leaning on the toad is Shikamaru looking into the sky with his hand rubbing his neck. His shadow on the toad is actually holding its hands in a seal. Suki stands in front of the two with her Sharingan activated and gazing forward. Around her sand floats ominously. **

* * *

"The First round of the Chūnin exams are complete. Winner is Uzumaki Naruto, the Mimic!" The crowd roared and clapped with approval at the amazing battle. Naruto looked up at Genma oddly who shrugged his shoulders.

"Congrats kid. You've gotten yourself a nickname courtesy of me." Naruto continued to stare at Genma oddly before shrugging and walking forward. He smiled and raised his arms into the sky.

"I did it!"

* * *

The crowd roared in frenzy as Naruto continued to wave and smile. He turned around and slipped off the gloves then clipped them back to his pants. Locating the stairs, he gave one last look at the medics that were carting away Neji before running towards the steps. As he walked up towards the contestant's box he noticed how a lot of the crowd continued to clap for him causing the boy to blush in embarrassment and laugh.

"Hehe I knew I was awesome," Naruto said as he reached the contestant box. Once he walked in he immediately felt a hand on his shoulder causing him to look around.

"Nice work out there Naruto," Shikamaru said as he got off the wall he was leaning on, "though now that you set the bar it's going to be hard to beat that performance. Man now I'm going to have to try, so troublesome," Shikamaru sighed. Naruto laughed and punched the other boy's arm jokingly.

"Better make it a good match man. I hear that your mom can be real crazy when you don't try," Shikamaru only sighed once more and the two walked towards the other competitors.

Back towards the Kage booth Sarutobi was holding his head in deep thought.

'What in the world have you been doing over this past month Naruto-kun?' the Sandaime thought. 'You are extremely lucky I didn't sic the Anbu on you for using the Kyūbi's chakra. Thank Kami you were able to keep yourself under control.' Unbeknownst to the aged Kage, the disguised Orochimaru was also having thoughts about the young blonde.

'Those moves are very interesting. With the boy's outrageous reserves and the power of the Fox, Naruto could be S-class easily with the proper training,' Orochimaru thought warily. 'If I bring Suki to me I may have a chance to bring the boy too. However if not Naruto will no doubt scour the nations to find the girl.' The Snake Sannin leaned back and folded his hands on his lap. 'That transformation needs to be studied. If the Kyūbi weren't in you Naruto you may have been a good body to take over. At the very least you would make a good underling.'

While the two powerful ninjas were left to their thoughts Naruto plopped himself down on a chair and let out a deep sigh of contentment. That last match really took a lot out of the boy. Shikamaru was leaning back on the chair next to the boy and glanced at Naruto. The match was strange. There were too many things that Naruto did that didn't make sense. Shikamaru had never heard of a ninja that could fly but there is a huge world out there, maybe there was a jutsu that allowed one to fly. But the odd thing about what Naruto did was that chakra he used. What was that orange and red chakra? Where did it come from? Where did that bloodlust come from and where did it go after? Those were the questions that flew through the young genius's mind.

Shikamaru had always seen how the villagers treated Naruto. The cold stares, the lack of acknowledgment, and the constant whispering was pretty hard to miss. Was it because of that chakra? The boy needed answers and Shikamaru always figured out what he wanted. If only he had the time to truly think about what was going on. Luckily his match wasn't till Suki got here so he had some time to-.

"Because Uchiha Suki is not present still we will be delaying her and Sabaku no Gaara's match. Will Aburame Shino and Sabaku no Kankuro please come down."

"I forfeit proctor!" Kankuro yelled loudly receiving a chorus of booing and an unseen glare from Shino.

'Forfeit? Why would the guy forfeit? He looks perfectly fine to me,' Shikamaru thought with a frown. 'Hmm if that match is done and Gaara and Suki's match is delayed that means-,'

"Nara Shikamaru and Sabaku no Temari please come down to the floor!" Genma yelled.

'Dammit.' Shikamaru moaned loudly and rubbed his forehead. Why oh why did that Uchiha have to be late. Now his pondering will have to be put on hold.

"Alright Shika ya hear that? You get to go earlier!" Naruto grinned from beside the boy. Shikamaru sighed and pushed himself off his seat towards the rail where he leaned over it. Temari had already flew down using her fan to catch the air currents down to the floor.

"Maybe I can just forfeit. That puppet guy did so, so why can't I," Shikamaru drawled. The pineapple headed boy heard a cry of outrage from behind and watched as Naruto rushed forward. How did he have energy already? Man how troublesome.

"Don't even think about it lazy-ass. If Ino hears that you forfeit and I didn't stop you, she won't just beat your ass she'll beat mine!" Naruto cried. The Nara closed his eyes and sighed again.

"Meh it's fine. This is too troublesome anyways. I don't want to be Chūnin ya know?" silence greeted Shikamaru. "Naruto?" he opened his eyes and noticed the blonde was no longer by his side. Looking over his shoulder he saw Naruto behind him in a crouched position with his fingers in a tiger seal. "Naruto what the fu-!"

"Konoha Taijutsu no Ougi: Sennin Goroshi!" Naruto shot his fingers forward and then all Shikamaru saw was the sky spinning.

* * *

Temari stood in the arena floor annoyed. Why did she have to fight this lazy boy. He had no motivation what so ever. She was about to yell for the Genin to get down when a scream of pain and rage cut her off. The scream attracted the attention of the restless crowd and they all turned to the competitor's box to see Shikamaru fly from the ledge to the floor. The boy landed in a heap blowing up a cloud of dirt and lay there for a moment groaning in pain. Temari blinked in confusion and wondered what happened. Her answer came when she saw Naruto poke his head out and wave.

"You're welcome Shika! Go get her!" Naruto yelled grinning. The blonde grinned and looked to his side seeing Shino and Kankuro giving him strange looks. "What? It's a very easy technique. My sensei was a jerk and taught it to me through experience. I can teach you two if you want."

Kankuro shook his head vehemently while Shino shook his head once. "No thank you Naruto." Shino said quietly but if you really knew the boy you could hear the slight tremble in his voice. The Sennin Goroshi is indeed a disturbing technique.

Naruto shrugged and looked back down towards the arena where Shikamaru was getting up. No offense to Shino but Naruto wanted to go find Sakura and ask her how good he did. Plus he wanted to find Emi and Takuma. Besides he didn't know that puppet user guy and it looked like Shino was glaring at the boy. Not something Naruto wanted to get into. So with a quick wave and an explanation of where he was going Naruto bound off.

Shikamaru pulled himself off the ground while Naruto left to find his friends so he missed the chance to glare at his blonde haired friend. 'Oh don't you worry Naruto. Even a lazy guy like me revels in revenge,' Shikamaru thought as he dusted his clothes off. The boy walked towards the center of the floor where Genma and Temari were waiting. Stretching a bit he stopped in front of the Suna kunoichi who smirked at him.

"Ready to lose you lazy excuse for a ninja?"

"How troublesome, let's just get this over with."

"Round 2 of the Chūnin Exams, begin!" Shikamaru instantly pulled out a few kunai from his pouch and launched them at Temari. The girl scoffed and opened her fan a little so she could blow them off course. Her eyes widened when she saw a shadow moving towards her while her attention was focused on the kunai.

"Shit a distraction!" Temari jumped high into the air to avoid the shadow and opened her fan all the way. She glided above Shikamaru and then jumped off while snapping her fan close. With a mighty yell she fell down upon the boy wielding the fan like a club. Shikamaru cursed and canceled his jutsu so he could jump away. Luckily he did because the impact made by Temari's fan caused a small crater that made cracks appear on the ground.

"That thing can knock my head off my shoulders," pulling a handful of shuriken he lobbed them at the Suna princess and watched as she dodged them. Temari then shot a stream of wind with her opened fan at him making him jump out of the way again. Hiding in the trees, Shikamaru took a few deep breathes and contemplated the situation. 'Okay so she seems to be smart and knows my moves. If I can catch her off guard then I can take her down with my Kage Mane. If not then I can surprise her with my new move.' Judging the time of the day Shikamaru calculated the length of the shadow the trees gave and how far his shadow would extend. Making his handsign he let his shadow go and it crept across the ground towards Temari.

Temari narrowed her eyes at the trees and was about to attack when she saw Shikamaru's shadow head for her again. Jumping back, she bit back a curse as it meandered back and forth like a snake trying to snag its prey. Finally the black line stopped and Temari smirked before using her fan to carve a line signifying the limit.

"Looks like that's all you can do punk!" No answer came from Shikamaru as he continued to analyze the situation. His thoughts were cut short as another blast of wind from the Suna ninja was sent hurtling at him. Four more blasts of wind flew through the trees making the lazy genius jump around frantically.

'I need to catch her off guard again but how?' Thinking quickly, Shikamaru pulled off his vest and tied a kunai to it making it into a make-shift parachute. Waiting for another wind blast, Shikamaru threw the parachute in the air just as the wind picked up making his idea fly high above. Quickly using Kage Mane he sent his shadow towards Temari hoping to catch her before his chakra ran out.

Temari watched as the shadow came curving at her again and shook her head. Why was the boy trying again? She had already found the length that the shadow could reach so what was the point? Her instincts primed through ninja training made her jump back quickly saving her from being caught in the now longer than she thought shadow. "What the hell?" Looking around, she spotted a part of the shadow that was thicker and looked up. Above the jutsu was Shikamaru's kunai and parachute combo which gave him the extra shadows to lengthen his.

"That boy is smart I'll give him that. However I'm not done yet," Temari whispered as she dodged to the side and spun in the air. "Kamaitachi no jutsu!" A torrent of wind swept over the arena causing a cloud of dust to be picked up. Shikamaru jumped from the trees and away from the devastation that riddled the forested area. He looked at the damage with frown and looked back to the girl.

"Troublesome blondes, all of you I swear," Shikamaru said rubbing his neck. Slowly but grudgingly, the boy went into his back pouch and pulled out a lone kunai. On the handle was a piece of paper with writing on it. "Can't believe I have to use this, man so troublesome."

* * *

Up in the stands, Naruto decided to go see if he could find some people he knew. As he walked through the seats he heard his name being called over the loud talking from the crowd.

"Naruto-kun! Hey Naruto-kun over here!" Naruto turned his head to see Emi and Takuma smiling and waving at him to come over. Grinning, Naruto bound over to the siblings. Emi gave Naruto a quick hug and Takuma patted his back after making the boy blush in embarrassment. He still wasn't used to this kind of positive attention.

"That was a great match Naruto. I couldn't believe you could use those gloves to such an amazing extent," Takuma said with a smile.

"Well yeah. Haha I got the idea from a character named Tsuna." Takuma nodded but then looked serious for a moment.

"But is it ok to be using ITs power?" Naruto nodded confidently.

"As long as I stay in control I will be fine. If I can do that then I can keep Hyper Form up. Using my own chakra is a different story since I will be using my own energy."

"Well you have to admit that those techniques are amazing," Emi stated. Naruto smiled and rubbed the back of his head.

"Haha thanks Emi-chan. Well I am going to try to find my teammate so I'll talk to you guys later." Naruto waved good bye and started to run down the stairs trying to find any sign of Sakura. She had pink hair how hard could it be? Seeing a flash of that exact color, Naruto rushed down the stairs and found Sakura sitting next to Ino with Kiba and Hinata beside them.

"Hey look, it's Naruto." Kiba pointed at the smiling blonde and stood up to pat the other boy's back. "Man that was a great match. I still can't believe you beat Neji!"

"G-good job N-Naruto-kun," Hinata said blushing.

"You did really good out there Naruto. You pulled some crazy stuff out there," stated Ino.

"Yeah how did you do all that Naruto? The new moves, that strange form, and heck you even flew!" Sakura wondered.

"Haha ninja secret Sakura-chan!"

"Naruto..."

Naruto gulped and scratched his cheek. Giving a brief explanation wouldn't hurt and if he didn't he might get hurt for teasing the pink haired girl. As long as he strayed away from the Kyūbi he would be fine. "Well some of those moves were based off of heavy chakra usage like my speed and Shottogan. Especially the Sōkatsui. Other than that it was just my Henge."

Sakura looked at the boy amazed at his progress. Naruto was getting so much stronger. What about her? Seeing Naruto push himself to get stronger was really making her feel like she needed to push forward. 'If Naruto is strong and Suki is too then I need to push myself even more. For my team.'

"I still don't get how your Henge works." Kiba said. "It almost reminds me of my Juujin bunshin where Akamaru turns into me, right buddy." Akamaru barked in agreement in Kiba's jacket and tilted his head curiosity.

Naruto shrugged. "I don't know enough about your family techniques to compare 'em Kiba. In simple terms let's just say my Henge transforms the reality of chakra and transforms the reality of my physical body...to a certain point at the moment," Naruto said the last part quietly. He was still having trouble with changing his body, or physiology as Ero-Sennin put it, and just couldn't get his whole body completely different yet. Hyper Naruto was the closest he has gotten to changing his whole body since unlike the illusion to reality henge the body henge didn't need a continuous amount of chakra to keep up and Hyper Form didn't have a lot of difference to a normal body. All it needed was the amount of chakra needed to transform and he was set. Like his rubber moves. Once the arm was rubber he found that a constant stream of chakra was no longer needed. Although even though he didn't need to keep using chakra to keep the Henge, Hyper Form was a special case due to him needing to constantly use chakra to attack. Though both types of transformation did take concentration to keep up.

That was why the illusion to reality transformations was both easier and harder at the same time Naruto thought. Easier in a sense that with his shadow clones the sky was limit to what he could do with them since they were made of pure chakra. For him, he needed to be perfect in how the illusion over him was created. His bird transformation was the perfect example. The chakra covering him had to be done perfectly. Fake wings, fake hollow bones, everything fake was made of chakra and needed to be constantly supplied with it. Being a freaking shuriken was easy compared to animals.

Kiba, with his extra sensitive hearing heard the last part but didn't comment. It was true that his family's jutsu weren't a huge secret but they were pretty well guarded so it was no wonder Naruto had any information on them. But still what was up with that crazy evil feeling red chakra had for a while. There was no way he was imagining that. Saving that thought for later Kiba turned his thoughts to what Naruto had looked like during the final part of the match. He knew where it came from but the answer was just out of his reach.

"Hey Naruto what was that thing you did at the end?" Naruto grinned broadly and crossed his arms.

"That was my Hyper Form. I've been working on that forever. It allows me to fl-."

"That's it! Now I know where you got that from," Kiba exclaimed. Naruto laughed and scratched his head.

"So you figured it out huh? Well you could say that in that form I'm 'Reborn' yeah?" Kiba shook his head and chuckled. He knew he would figure it out.

"It l-looked very g-good N-Naruto-kun," Hinata said with a large blush starting to appear on her face. 'I can't believe I said that! What if he thinks I'm weird for saying that?' Naruto laughed and patted Hinata's back and pulling the girl into a friendly hug making the girl turn bright red.

"Thanks Hinata. I hope you enjoyed the match and I hope Neji and you get along now since you guys.. Hinata? Oi what happened? Hinata are you okay?" Hinata had passed out with a smile due to the contact of Naruto touching her. "Uh is she sick?"

"No Naruto she is fine," Sakura sighed. 'So dense.' "Shouldn't you head back to the competitor's box?"

"Oh yeah I got to go! I can see Shika's match way better from there anyways. Oh looks like he is starting to do something big so I better go. See ya!" and with that Naruto ran back.

* * *

Outside of the trees Temari stood with her fan out and tried to spot the Nara. Not seeing any sign she growled and stuck her fan in the dirt.

Shikamaru was closing his eyes finalizing his plan. 'I only have one shot at this so I need to maneuver her into the right spot then capture her. If this works then I will only need three minutes.' Shikamaru readied his arm and narrowed his eyes. "Starting now."

"If you won't come out then I'm going to flush you out!" Temari yelled getting ready to bite her thumb. The sound of an object flying through the air made her jump forward so that she could dodge a kunai that lodged itself into the ground.

Temari's eyes widened when she saw a tag on the kunai and she rolled to the side thinking it was an explosive tag. When nothing happened she stood up quickly and readied her fan. "A dud? Then it was a distraction. Where is he then?" a salvo of shuriken made the girl open her fan to blow them back but she cursed and jumped away as she saw a shadow heading towards her. The shuriken stuck beside her and she stood with her fan out growling. This boy was annoying her with his tricks and making her look like a fool.

Settling down Temari stuck her fan in the ground and bit her thumb once more, readying her finishing technique. However, a hissing sound made her stop and she looked over her fan at the kunai that was still in the ground. 'It wasn't a dud it was a hand seal activated tag! But the explosion shouldn't hurt me too much when I'm behind the fan, why would he set it off now?' Suddenly, and much to her surprise, a flash of light blinded her and much of the crowd. When the light died down Temari felt a kunai against her back and she froze in shock. Turning around she was astonished to see the lazy ninja with his knife pointed at her back and half his body sticking up out of a shadow next to her like he was in water.

"H-how?"

"Well it was troublesome to do, but all my attacks were leading you to the exact spot I wanted you to," Shikamaru said as he slowly rose from the shadow till he was completely out of the ground. Temari chanced a look over her fan and saw a shadow leading from the shadows of the forest that connected into a line that went from the shadows of the kunai with the tag to the shuriken and curved to a shadow behind her. Looking up slowly she gasped as she saw the make-shift parachute that he had thrown earlier. The shadow line started to recede towards the Nara as he looked down at the Suna ninja with his kunai pointed at her throat now that he was standing.

"But how did you get behind me? A new form of Shunshin?" Shikamaru scoffed at that.

"Moves like that are such a drag to use for me. I used the Kage Sanpo (Shadow Walk). I can move through my shadow from one point to another without having to rush. Plus I'm sucked into it so I won't be seen." Shikamaru looked into the sky at the clouds and sighed. If only he was like a cloud he wouldn't have to deal with the exams. "I got you in 2 minutes and 42 seconds once I initiated my plan. You lose, checkmate."

"Winner Nara Shikamaru!" Genma yelled and the crowd erupted in applause. 'The kid is smart just like all Nara's. But to be able to use the Kage Sanpo no jutsu at such a young age. How amazing.' Genma looked over to the box where the Chūnin examiners were and nodded.

Izumo and Kotetsu saw the nod and wrote on their clipboards.

"Looks like we might have two new Chūnins eh Izumo?" Kotetsu grinned.

"That Nara kid is smart that's for sure. Plus he manipulated his opponent in exactly the way he wanted while also doing it in a time frame he seemed to want. Quite amazing."

* * *

Shikamaru walked up slowly towards the competitor's box where Naruto was waiting with a grin. The blonde quickly ran to the boy and grabbed him by the neck and rubbed Shikamaru's head.

"That was awesome Shika! I didn't know you knew such a cool move like that! Man I wish could move through the shadows like you," Shikamaru grunted and pushed Naruto off. "Too bad it is a bloodline or I would totally like to learn it!" Shikamaru looked at Naruto oddly before chuckling.

"Naruto you can fly already and move at amazing speeds. I can't see you using the Kage Sanpo seeing as how it requires patience and planning." Naruto pouted and crossed his arms.

"Still would be fun to learn." Naruto gestured for them to head more inside where they stood next to Shino. Temari had walked back up the other way and was now standing by her brother glaring holes into the pineapple haired boy. If looks could kill Shikamaru would be in the 9th level of Hell.

"It's fine Temari. Just focus on the plan," Kankuro whispered.

"Whatever. I just can't believe I lost to him," Temari growled. She then looked at her youngest brother and shivered. Gaara was getting antsy. The Uchiha still wasn't here and she could tell that the Jinchuuriki was looking for blood.

Naruto was also thinking on the whereabouts of Suki. They pushed her match back already, going back two matches in fact. Naruto didn't think they could go anymore. Just then Genma called for Gaara and Suki to the floor and Naruto saw his fellow demon container Shunshin to ground in a swirl of sand. He hoped the girl would come soon or she would be really disqualified.

Genma looked at his wrist regarding the watch with a frown. He would give the Uchiha five more minutes. If she wasn't here then he couldn't do anything else but disqualify her. Looking at the small Sand ninja, Genma sighed and looked once back to the crowd.

"Due to Uchiha Suki still not being here I have no choice but to-," a gust of wind stopped the examiner mid-sentence and he turned his head to the source of the wind. A whirlwind of leaves blocked Genma's vision but once they settled there standing tall was Uchiha Suki and Hatake Kakashi.

"We're not late, are we?" Kakashi said sheepishly. Genma sighed and shook his head.

"Just made it in time, took you long enough."

Kakashi scratched the back of his head and eye smiled. "Well looks like we just made it in time then, eh Suki?" Suki's eye twitched and she glared up at her teacher through her bangs.

"Proctor-san how late are we?" Suki grit out without looking away from Kakashi.

"We pushed your match back…twice." Suki almost screeched at her silver haired sensei but kept her calm. Though her eye continued to twitch dangerously. "But you're here now so let's get this match started. Kakashi-san if you would," Kakashi nodded and left the ground in a puff of smoke and leaves. Suki looked up and noticed a flash of blonde in her vision. It was Naruto waving his hands and arms trying to get her attention. She smirked slightly and gave him a nod.

Naruto noticed that his teammate finally spotted him and grinned. He was glad she was finally here and wasn't disqualified. He also noticed that she looked so much different with her new wardrobe. She now had on black collared sleeveless top that showed more of her stomach than the last shirt, which was still covered in mesh. Both her arms sported fingerless arm gloves that clung to her skin and went to her elbows. Her left arm had an elbow guard above the glove for extra protection. Suki's old shorts were replaced by a skirt that stopped at the thighs and were cut on the sides to allow more movement. From her thighs down she had white stockings that were tucked into black ninja sandals. All in all, for Naruto, Suki looked much more feminine and let her growing curves show. She actually looked a lot cuter, not that he would ever say that. Like hell he would. Ever.

Suki rolled her shoulders a bit and stared at her opponent. The red haired boy looked the same as he did a month ago, those same cold eyes staring at her, dead looking above all else. Genma held his hand in front of the two and looked back to his Kage. With a nod from the aged leader he lifted his arm.

"BEGIN!" Suki immediately pulled out a round of kunai and lobbed them at Gaara. Just as she expected sand poured from the gourd on his back and shot in front of him to block the kunai. Rushing forward she started to try and hit the boy with taijutsu, but the sand kept blocking her.

In the stands, Kakashi appeared on the stairs next to the row Sakura was sitting in. The pinkette yelped at the sudden entrance of her sensei before glaring at him.

"Kakashi-sensei where have you been?"

"Maa sorry Sakura but we had some last minute business to deal with," Kakashi said while eye smiling.

"Your tardiness is a cloud over the shining youth of your students Kakashi!" Kakashi sighed inaudibly and turned around.

"Hmm you say something Gai?"

"Gah curse you Kakashi and your hip attitude!" Gai cried out. Sakura looked over to the eccentric sensei and saw Lee standing next to him leaning on a crutch.

"Lee," Lee looked over to the girl and smiled slightly, a complete contrast to his usual exuberant self.

"Hello Sakura-san. We were hoping to get here earlier to see Naruto and Neji's fight but I guess we missed it."

"Oh man you guys missed it!" Ino said leaning over Sakura so she could talk to the three new arrivals. "Naruto was awesome out there! He beat Neji and showed some awesome moves!"

"Yeah!" Kiba joined in while laughing. "Who would have known that the dead last could fly?"

'Fly?' Kakashi thought.

"You missed Naruto's fight sensei," Sakura said disappointedly. "I bet he would have liked it if you and Suki were here." Kakashi chuckled nervously and rubbed his neck. He knew he should have been here sooner but it was a pretty long trek to get here from those cliffs. Kakashi could feel Sakura's eyes still on him and he held his hands up in placating motion.

"Now, now Sakura I'm sure he did fine without me. Besides I'll make it up to you two later for now let's just watch Suki's fight." Sakura stared at her sensei for a moment longer before looking back. Even if Suki wasn't Sasuke, Sakura still cared for the other girl. Sakura clenched her hands in worry. Gaara was a monster. What he did to Lee was inexcusable. What if he did that to Suki? What if it wasn't just an arm or leg?

Kakashi saw the girl's worry and patter her shoulder. "Don't worry Sakura, Suki will be fine."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Just watch."

* * *

Suki, who had been smashing away at Gaara's shield of sand smirked as she decided to take the fight up a notch. Back flipping from a tendril of sand the girl rushed forward once more and lashed out with a punch. Just as her fist was about to hit the sand her form blurred from view and she appeared behind Gaara.

"What?" Gaara whispered. His sand barely made it in time to block before Suki blurred away again and attacked from the side. This back and forth lasted a few minutes before the girl was finally able to beat the sand and she smashed a foot into Gaara's face sending him tumbling across the ground.

"Hmph is that all you have," Suki said mockingly as she got into a fighting stance.

* * *

"T-that is my Gouken!" Lee said shocked. "How?"

"What better fighting style to teach her than the one that first injured Gaara," Kakashi stated still looking down. "Don't get me wrong, you are still far ahead of her due to her having to use chakra to augment her muscles so she can move that fast, but with this fighting style she has a chance to win."

Lee looked down at the arena from Kakashi and felt a sense of melancholy. 'Suki you truly are a genius. To even get this far with Gouken in just a month. And Naruto... The one who defeated my rival.' Lee sighed. 'Will I ever be able to fight again?'

* * *

Naruto was standing with his arms over a ledge watching the beginning of the fight so far. He was quite surprised to see Suki able to move at high speeds, but he guessed Kakashi had to give her something to get past the sand. Shikamaru and Shino stood next to him both looking at the fight with differing levels of interest. Shikamaru was casting glances at the two Suna ninjas and frowning.

"They are up to something," he whispered quietly.

"Who?" Shikamaru looked down to Naruto surprised that the blonde heard him but waved it off. He must have been louder than he thought.

"Those Suna ninja. They keep whispering and looking around. Almost like they are expecting something..."

"I agree," Shino put in. "They are too wound up. My bugs sense unease in their behaviors."

"We'll have to keep an eye on them. Don't drop your guard." Naruto blinked and nodded before looking back to Suki's fight. What could be going on?

* * *

Suki cartwheeled out the way of a wave of sand and blurred forward once more striking Gaara in the stomach and following up with a kick to the side that was interrupted by sand. Backing off once more Suki closed her eyes for a moment and gathered her chakra.

'Sharingan!' Opening her eyes once more Suki revealed the red orbs of her family's doujutsu, both eyes now with two spinning tomoes. With renewed vigor she rushed forth and elegantly dodged the sand tendrils that went for her.

Gaara growled lowly and held his hand in front of him. Sand gathered and formed making a copy of the Jinchuuriki. The Suna bunshin swung a sand arm at Suki who ducked under it and started for the original. However she had jump out he way as the clone brought a sandy leg up towards the girl's chin. With a growl Suki placed her palms on the leg and vaulted herself up. Sticking to the leg with chakra she spun on her hand while throwing her legs into a split. Her foot smashed into the fake Gaara's face and the sand head blew apart. Suki finished her spin and pushed off the sand to land in crouch before the clone could reform itself. Not letting herself stay still for long Suki blurred again and appeared in front of Gaara.

Gaara was expecting another taijutsu attack but his pale green eyes widened in shock as Suki went through a chain of handseals at an amazing pace.

"Katon: Gōkakyū no jutsu!" Suki yelled before shooting a large fireball down at pointblank range. The fire jutsu consumed the boy and Suki landed gracefully. "Heh let's see you survive that." When the fired died down a glass statue of Gaara was left standing there. The glass shattered and fell to pieces and Suki recoiled in shock. A sound behind the girl made her spin to see that the clone she had taken care of was now replaced by the crazed form of Gaara.

"Yes, yes! Mother will have your blood!" Gaara screamed as he lifted his arms. A wall of sand rose up to surround Suki and when she looked up she was appalled to see a large spike of sand form above her.

"Shit! There's no way for me to run out!" Suki looked around frantically but saw no way out of the sand wall. She had to break through. 'Hopefully this will get me through!' Suki thought as she hurriedly went through seals.

"Die for Mother!" The sand spike completed and shot down at Suki who completed her seals and looked up with her Sharingan spinning.

* * *

"Suki!" Naruto screamed out as the sand spike fell upon his teammate. The boy gripped the rail causing it to groan and leave indents in the metal. Naruto's whole body was tense and his eyes were wide with fear.

Shikamaru gripped his friend's shoulder tightly to reel the boy back in. "Naruto calm down this is Suki we are talking about. _The_ Uchiha Suki, I'm sure she has a plan," Shikamaru said through clenched teeth. Though even he was worried, that last attack looked too hard escape through just speed. He could have used Shadow Walk to escape, but Suki… he didn't know if Suki had a move like that.

Like Naruto, Sakura was also screaming for her teammate. Her screaming was stopped as she felt a hand pat her lightly on the head. Looking up, she saw Kakashi smiling down at her.

"Don't worry she is fine. She prepared for this." Just then the wall of sand that once surrounded Suki melted into glass as fire erupted around the spike just as it was about to pierce inside of the circle of glass.

* * *

The spike that was raised high to kill Suki turned to glass also and it and the wall shattered into pieces. As the pieces fell they reflected a shining light coming from Suki. Circling the girl was a long bodied dragon made of red hot flames its eyes shined white with power. It spun around the girl protectively, its whole body going from Suki's feet to the top of her head. The dragon stopped spinning for a moment and lifted its head high to stare at the shocked Gaara. It roared and then continued to spin but at a much slower pace.

"Katon: Karyū Engo (Fire Style: Fire Dragon Protection)," Suki said as she looked at her opponent with her head held high. "You're finished now." Gaara stared at Suki before he slowly broke out into maniac grin.

"Yes, yes this is what Mother wants. You are strong, Mother wants your strong blood…Mother wants you!" Gaara threw his arms out and let out waves of sand towards Suki. Suki scoffed and dodged to the side, her Sharingan allowing her to predict the movements of the sand. Suddenly a whip of sand from behind made her look back in alarm. However the fiery dragon around her roared and lashed out at the sand in an explosion of fire, easily turning the grains into glass. Suki smirked and then ran forward. Using her speed, Suki got close to the green eyed boy and started to rain down on him with vicious taijutsu attacks. Whenever she threw a punch a part of the fire that surrounded her body would fly with her fist and either melt the sand or burn the boy it was trying to protect.

A brutal uppercut laced with fire sent Gaara flying into the air where a pillow of sand caught him. He got up quickly and made the sand cloud shoot down pellets of sand at Suki. Suki growled in frustration as she dodged as much as she could and let her Karyū Engo take care of what she couldn't. Though even with her fire defense some shots of sand still impacted her body causing her to yelp in pain. There were just too many. Hoping to get the boy down, Suki used Kage Buyō to get behind Gaara who blinked in surprise.

"Katon: Shishi Rendan (Fire Style: Lion Barrage)!" Suki yelled as she delivered her taijutsu combo accompanied with fire to Gaara sending him to the ground. The boy fell to the ground with a grunt and Suki landed gracefully. She pulled a shuriken from her pouch and quickly attached ninja wire to it. Spinning it around quickly, she zeroed in on the recovering Gaara.

"I want to end this now so if you don't mind I'm going to finish this." Suki spun the wire attached shuriken quickly before launching it towards Gaara. "Karyū Engo Tama (Fire Dragon Protection Shot)!" As Suki yelled the name of her technique; the fire dragon that was circling her sprang onto the wire and followed down to the shuriken till its head encompassed the ninja star. The dragon grew to a great size and it roared showing the spinning, white hot shuriken in its mouth.

Gaara looked on as the great construct of fire bore down at him and after years of killing others he felt an emotion he thought he would never feel again. Terror.

"MOTHER!" An explosion shook the floor as Suki's jutsu connected and black smoke covered the area where Gaara once stood. Suki smirked and turned around thinking she won when a gasp from the crowd made her spin around. In the wake of the destruction she caused stood an orb of sand, a good portion of it melted into glass. However the glass was shattered off and replaced with more sand to make the orb perfect. Suki looked in shock at the globe and narrowed her eyes.

'How did he block that? How the hell did he block that?' Suki yelled in her mind. She ran forward at a cautious pace but had to jump backwards to avoid being impaled by a spike of sand that shot from the orb. That defense was incredibly strong. It looked like Kakashi was right, she had to use _it_. Suki back flipped on to the wall and continued to till she was high above the floor. Flipping through hand seals she threw her left hand down to the wall and grasped her wrist. Chakra burst forth around her hand as lightning erupted from her fingers. A ring electricity revolved around her feet, feeding the lightning chakra around the girl's hand as the sound of birds chirping echoed across the arena.

* * *

"Really Kakashi? To have taught the girl _that_ jutsu," Gai said as he looked at Suki. Everyone's attention was focused on the eccentric Jounin as he stroked his chin.

"What jutsu are you talking about Gai-sensei?" Sakura asked as she shifted her eyes back and forth between Suki and Gai.

"Kakashi's original technique, it is used as an assassination jutsu. Even though it may sound loud the jutsu is extremely powerful. Essentially it is basically a strong chakra encased thrust of lightning chakra, but what truly makes this move dangerous is its piercing power. To use the jutsu effectively you need to be able to move at incredible speeds, but the speed you must move at is a liability thanks to the tunnel vision that is suffered. That is why you need to be able to predict how the enemy moves."

"But if it has such a dangerous drawback then what is the use?" Ino asked.

"You must have the predicting capabilities of the Sharingan." The Genin nodded as they realized why Kakashi would teach it to Suki.

"What a powerful jutsu…"

"Yes it is," Gai said. "With the power to even cut lightning itself and giving a death accompanied by the sound of birds chirping. Thus rightly named…"

* * *

Suki grinned as the jutsu came to full power and she pulled her arm back, while also ripping apart the wall she stood on, and bolted down the wall. Her speed picked up steadily as she ran down to the ground and continued to grow as she flew across it towards the sphere of sand. Her left hand gave off a trail of lightning as Suki held it behind her, the sound of birds chirping screeching out. Suki's Sharingan spun as she got closer to Gaara's defense and she dodged the sand spikes that came out to stab her. With a mighty scream she thrust her arm forward and pierced right through the compacted sand like a hot knife through butter.

"CHIDORI (One Thousand Birds)!" Silence met Suki's scream of her jutsu as the crowd stared in awe at the amazing spectacle. That silence was broken by a scream filled with pain and madness that Suki recoiled.

"BLOOD! MY BLOOD!" Gaara screamed from inside the ball. Suki pulled her arm out of the sand with a pained grunt and watched as the sand fell away leaving a screaming Gaara who clutched his shoulder. An ominous pressure fell upon the stadium as Gaara's screams escalated.

Naruto flinched at the feel of the chakra that washed over the stadium and shouted in alarm.

"Shit something's happening!" He turned to the side to see a horrified expression on both Temari and Kankuro. This was not good.

Up in the Kage booth, Sarutobi slowly turned to side and his eyes met with the only other person sitting down. The two guards of the "Kazekage" that were wrapped in a cloak shifted and two figures burst from each cloak and jumped to the roof of a separate building. An explosion occurred and knocked the body guards of the Hokage off their feet while Orochimaru threw off his disguise and grabbed Sarutobi from behind and put a kunai to his throat. The Snake Sannin brought the aged Hokage with him to the building where he stood in the middle of his four Sound ninja.

"Do it!"

"Yes sir! Fuuin: Shishienjin (Sealing art: Four Violet Flame Encampment)!" The Sound Four said simultaneously. A purple box appeared around Orochimaru and Sarutobi who kicked his old student off of him.

"Oh ho looks like the old man still has some fight in him." Sarutobi growled and threw off his Kage robes revealing his battle armor underneath.

"I had a feeling this would happen my former student. To think that you would sink this low as to attack the village of your roots." Orochimaru cackled in response.

"By the time I'm done there will be no village left!"

Naruto panicked as he saw the explosion in the Kage box. He turned quickly to see siblings of Gaara jump down to the arena and he growled as he got ready to jump after them while transforming his arm.

"I'm not letting you guys get away!" Naruto yelled not noticing as glowing feathers started to fall around him. "Gomu Gomu…no…" The blonde's eyes started to droop as he swayed and fell back. 'What's happening? I'm getting…sleepy…' Naruto couldn't keep his eyes open any longer and he let the blissful touch of sleep consume him, unaware of the destruction that started to breakout around him. Konoha began to fall in chaos.


	12. I Will Lead You out of the Dark

Chapter 12: I Will Lead You out of the Dark

_Editted 2/1/12_

**I would like to apologize for such a long update. I will never abandon this story…ever. This story is my baby which started out as a fleeting idea. I won't be giving this up. Not with all the work I and many other did. I would like to thank theDragonBard for all their help. We really brainstorm quite a bit on this story and the things to come are all written out. So this gonna be short so you can get on with the reading. Longer AN at the bottom**

**Intro Music ON: STFU by Girugamesh**

**Cover: Naruto stands on a tree top. His held is tilted down and his arms are raised in the air. His hands are covered by the special gloves and they are clenched into fists. Through the cracks of his fingers sand fall in a stream to the floor. In the skies above, leaves dance in the wind.**

* * *

"So what will it be today?"

"Give me two miso ramens and keep em coming!"

"Haha you got it Naruto!" Teuchi started working on the ramen while Ayame leaned against the counter staring at the blonde boy. Naruto grinned back and grabbed a pair of chopsticks before breaking them apart with a loud snap.

"So how have you been Naruto-kun?" Ayame asked.

"Pretty good Ayame-chan. I've been training a lot so that I can become a good Hokage. I'm goin to take that hat someday ya know." Ayame giggled and then placed two steaming bowls of ramen before the boy. Naruto felt a bit of drool pool in his mouth before he gulped it up and placed his hands together.

"Itadakimasu!" Just as Naruto was about to dig in Ayame cleared her throat. Naruto looked up and quirked his head.

"Anything wrong Ayame-chan?"

"Well it's just..."

"Yeah..."

"How can you become Hokage if you don't wake up?" Naruto brought his head back in surprise before laughing.

"That's real funny Ayame-chan. Wake up? Why would I need to if I'm already awake? Wait Ayame you shouldn't be doing that," Naruto said directing his gaze to her hands which were placed in a ram seal. "You aren't a ninja so if something goes wrong, I don't want you to get hurt." Things started to blur around Naruto and the boy looked around frantically.

"W-what? Hey what's going on? Ayame quit it!"

"Wake up Naruto-kun. Please." Naruto opened his mouth but a booming voice that seemed to echo made him recoil.

"KAI!"

* * *

Naruto's eyes shot open and he sat up with a loud scream.

"Naruto get up! Konoha is under attack!" Naruto heard someone say but his eyes were still blurry and he was still groggy. Shaking his head roughly Naruto was able to distinguish the blurry shapes around him.

Sakura was looking down at him with a worried frown while Shikamaru had his eyes constantly darting back and forth with his hands in his pocket.

"What's going on?" Naruto said wearily as he pushed himself up.

"Oto has attacked us and Suna has decided to betray us," Sakura replied. "Someone put a very strong genjutsu over the arena and made almost everyone fall asleep. You weren't waking up right away..." Naruto cracked his neck and looked around. Everywhere he looked ninja darted around the crowd fighting in their own battles. His eyes started to widen in alarm as the weight of events started to dawn on him.

Konoha was in peril.

Naruto cursed loudly and spun in place taking everything in. His hands tightened in anger and he ran to the rail he was about to jump off of right before he fell asleep. He looked up towards the Kage booth and saw no one there, but higher up, on another building, was a shining purple cube that stood tall.

"Forehead get Naruto moving! We've got to go!" Naruto heard Ino yell. He turned around and saw Ino pointing at a small pug with a Konoha headband. "Pakkun says we have to get out of here. He says Suki is getting way ahead!" The dog ran up to Naruto and the boy leaned down to his level.

"I'm one Kakashi's summons. He gave you all a mission," Pakkun said.

"What can it be now? I have to get up there," Naruto pointed to the purple cube, "Hokage-jii san is up there!"

"Listen kid there is no time! The Hokage is strong. He can take care of himself. Right now we have that Gaara kid we have to worry about, so let's go!" Pakkun turned and started off towards a hole in a wall made by a flying green blur that was shouting something about youth before it flew away.

"Oi Kiba stay here and keep Hinata safe or I'll turn you into paste got it! I didn't wake you up for nothing!" Sakura yelled over her shoulder. "She's still too injured from when she fought Neji so waking her up would only be a burden for her."

Kiba grunted back at the girl. "Like you need to tell me. Akamaru let's do this!" The white puppy barked in response and jumped out of Kiba's jacket. Sakura, Shikamaru, and Ino started to follow Pakkun while Naruto continued to stare at the purple barrier with a grimace.

"Naruto!"

"I'll be right there!" Naruto yelled back. "Kage Bunshin no jutsu!" three puffs of smoke appeared in front of Naruto and he lowered his hands from his seal.

"Ichi..." Naruto started looking at the first clone.

"I'm on it," Ichi cut off before his form disappeared in a plume of smoke. Naruto turned to the two remaining clones.

"You know what to do. Get to it!"

"Right boss!" Naruto dismissed them with a quick wave of his arm and the two blonde clones blurred away. Naruto turned around towards the hole where his teammates for this impromptu mission were waiting.

"Ready."

* * *

Naruto and his team jumped from tree to tree as they were led by Pakkun. All around the group, even that far into the surrounding forests, battles were raging everywhere. Naruto looked around warily as he pushed off a branch.

"How could this happen? I thought Suna was our ally," Ino said.

"They are, or were supposed to be," Sakura muttered. "But lately I've heard that their village hasn't been doing too well. Their daimyo has been looking to other villages for missions and Suna has been losing money."

"So they betrayed us for money!" Naruto roared.

"Cool it Naruto." Naruto turned to glare at Shikamaru. "That money that they needed was to help pay for food and water. Water especially seeing as how they are in a desert." Naruto huffed but agreed begrudgingly. But why did they have to betray Konoha?

Pakkun stopped suddenly on a branch and raised his nose. The dog turned his head from side to side then looked back. "We're being followed. A platoon of ninja from the smell and chakra levels."

"Damn," Shikamaru cursed. "Can we get away?"

"I've been trying to lead us through a route so we can shake them off, but they are persistent," Pakkun growled out. "We need to split up then. If they follow a decoy then-."

"That actually might work!" yelled Naruto. "I'll stay here and confuse them with my clones and then catch up as fast as I can. You guys go on ahead but don't go too far so I can catch up."

"No way Naruto, you need to keep going and I'll stall them. My techniques are made for that." Shikamaru stepped forward and waved the others away. "If I can catch them all then that will give you guys enough time to reach Suki."

"But Shikamaru what if you can't hold them off?" Ino asked worriedly.

Shikamaru didn't answer for a moment and when he finally did it wasn't what Ino wanted. "Just hurry it up. The more time you waste the more time you are losing."

"He's right. We have to go now." Naruto frowned at the dog's answer and looked back at Shikamaru. He didn't like the idea of leaving Shikamaru by himself against a platoon of Oto ninja. At least if he stayed he could spam Shadow Clones and sneak off. With Hirenkyaku he would easily catch up. But it looked like Shikamaru wasn't going to budge on his decision.

"Be careful Shika." Naruto said and the group started off again. Shikamaru looked behind his back for a second before looking forward once more. He pulled a kunai with a tag tied to it from his pouch and sighed.

"Troublesome."

* * *

Orochimaru back peddled away from a salvo of roof tiles that flew at him akin to shuriken. He smiled eerily and licked his lips as he used his snake like body to move around the projectiles.

Hiruzen frowned at his former student and the way the pale man's body moved. Flying through seals once more a river of mud shot out from the roof and flowed down catching a surprised Orochimaru in its stream. A second and twenty handseals later a dragon head made of mud rose from the mud river and opened its mouth at the struggling Sannin.

"Douton: Douryuudan no jutsu (Earth style: Earth Dragon Bullet jutsu)!" Sarutobi yelled and a dragon's head made of mud rose from the river. Opening its maw it shot out a round of mud bullets towards Orochimaru. One second and a sequence of seals later and Sarutobi was shooting a stream of fire that lit the mud pellets aflame.

There was a scream of pain as the shots impacted Orochimaru but Sarutobi scowled at the lack of body and he turned around to see Orochimaru rise from the ground with a sickly smile on his face. The snake Sannin's face was ripped on the upper half showing pale and unmarked skin. The Immortality Technique of Orochimaru was truly a disturbing technique.

'Look at what you have done to yourself. Is this the cost of the power you so desired.' Sarutobi thought grimly. Orochimaru chuckled as he pulled his upper skin off and threw it away getting rid of any past injuries that marked him.

"Dear sensei is that really all you have? Old age must be getting to you." Orochimaru said. Hiruzen grabbed at his robes and threw them off to show the battle armor that was under his formal wear.

"I may have aged more but my skills have always been eons above yours my wayward student." And with that said the Third Hokage rushed forward faster than the ANBU outside could follow.

Orochimaru leaned to the side to dodge a viscous snap kick that made the air whistle. Sarutobi followed the kick with a downward thrust that Orochimaru was too slow to dodge making him block. Orochimaru grunted in pain as he felt his arm almost snap from the force of his former sensei's blow. He may be old but he was not the Hokage for nothing. Sarutobi grabbed ahold of the arm that blocked his attack and twisted it eliciting a grunt from Orochimaru. Spinning on his heel Sarutobi pulled Orochimaru into him and threw the man over his shoulder. As Orochimaru sailed towards the ground Sarutobi blurred through a string of seals before spitting out a stream of mud. The mud instantly formed into a large wall that sprang up under the Snake Sannin. Before the mud wall could strike though Orochimaru twisted his body so that the wall missed by inches.

Sarutobi flew through another set of seals that caused the wall to burst apart into an avalanche of spiked boulders. Placing his hands into the snake seal the old Hokage stomped his foot onto the ground and the pile of rubble sank in almost as if a great force slammed down on it.

Hiruzen straightened up and admired his handy work. He didn't have long to admire as a sword glowing pale blue pierced him in the stomach.

"What an amazing jutsu combination sensei," Orochimaru whispered from behind the stabbed Hokage. "No wonder they call you the Professor. Too bad it didn't work." The man that was pierced through Orochimaru's Kusanagi shimmered out of existence only to be replaced by one of the boulders making Orochimaru frown.

"You always did think the Academy three were a waste I time. Once you could use them you never stopped to actually learn them." Sarutobi stood atop the rubble he caused with his arms folded. "Everything to you was all about how many techniques you could learn."

"Knowledge is everything sensei," Orochimaru hissed smoothly.

"I had such high hopes for you..."

"And your sympathy will be your downfall!" Orochimaru flung the rock off his legendary sword and rushed at Sarutobi. Sarutobi quickly went through five well known handseals.

"Kuchiyose no jutsu!"

* * *

Naruto jumped off a branch and soared through the air with his face forward. Behind him jumping at the same pace were Ino and Sakura while Pakkun led the trio towards where he smelled Suki. Naruto was starting to panic as they got closer. Just moments ago they had to deviate from their path and go around a battle that was taking place.

Pakkun had stated that one of the scents belonged to one of the Suna ninja. The other scent made the small pug wary as he stated that it wasn't entirely human. The girls immediately said to go around and that's exactly what they did. They had resumed their normal path after going around and were now on track once more

"We're close," Pakkun said as he stopped on a branch and lifted his nose up. The group stopped behind the dog and raised their heads up. Unlike the dog that had an amazing sense of smell, they could not sense anything yet. As if on cue a piercing roar echoed into the forest causing Naruto to sweat.

'What the hell was that!' Naruto thought with a gulp.

"We need to hurry! Pick up the pace!" the dog ordered and then hurried off. Naruto gulped audibly before following. He had a gut feeling that something was going to happen. Something horrible.

The group stopped their tree hopping and came across a truly horrific sight. The boy they thought was Gaara now resembled a monster made of sand. His whole top half was covered in sand and was outlined with blue veins. He resembled a viscous tanuki with glowing gold eyes and behind him waved a single long tail made of sand. The only part of Gaara not covered in sand were his legs.

Suki stood off to the side panting and holding her left arm. The curse mark was activated as seen from the flame like tattoos that spread across part of her face. Naruto and the girls immediately jumped in front of Suki and pulled out their weapons.

"What happened?" Naruto yelled behind his back.

"I was fighting him to the point of where I needed to pull out this damn thing," Suki gestured to her shoulder where the curse mark was located, "and when I thought I finally took him down he turned into THAT." Gaara growled and narrowed his eyes at the ninja.

"More puny insects for me to satisfy mother? Fine then," Gaara lifted one of his claws. "Feed Mother your blood! Suna Shuriken!" With a mighty swing a round of shuriken made of sand flew at the ninja. Naruto cursed and the Genin jumped out of the way as the projectiles tore through the branch they were just on.

"What the hell is he?" Ino whispered in fright.

"He's a monster right now," a shaky voice answered. The Konoha ninja turned to the side to see a clearly shaken up Temari come out from behind a tree. "Due to the influence from the demon inside of him, Gaara is becoming more and more wild. Soon no one will be able to beat him." Gaara roared and turns his head towards where the ninja were standing. "No one..."

"We won't know until we try," Naruto said standing from his crouched position. "And if we don't try, well we're all screwed. So I'm not giving up without a fight! Kage Bunshin no jutsu!"

* * *

"Gomu Gomu no Raifuru!" an Oto ninja screamed in pain as he was sent spinning away into a wall where he impacted it with a loud thud. He didn't get up afterwards. Naruto's hand sprang back and he turned to the side where another group of enemy ninja were heading for him.

"Shottogan!" the ninja were shot down mid-flight by a barrage of blue pellets and tumbled down to the arena. The Naruto who had just subdued his opponent with a Rifle attack looked to the side where another Naruto stood with his fist out. The two clones that Naruto had made prior to his leaving glanced at one another and frowned.

"These guys are coming too fast. I almost got dispelled once when I had to protect her," a clone stated pointing at Emi. Emi lay slumped on her seat with her head leaning on Takuma's shoulder who was sleeping with a bit of drool going down his mouth.

"Bastard. When he wakes up I hope he learns how to dispel genjutsu," the second clone stated with a sweat drop. "I mean if the two of them can use chakra to make weapons then why can't they use jutsu?"

"Like we can talk," the first replied with an equal sweat drop. "Naruto had to be woken up by Sakura-chan."

There was a collective silence between the two clones before they sighed aloud. "We suck at genjutsu." As the two clones lamented their incapability regarding illusions a certain green Jounin had appeared in front of a stray Suna that had decided to try and use a civilian as a meat shield. As the beautiful green beast and protector of all things youthful, Maito Gai could not let this crime go unpunished. So with a mighty scream of youth the offender was sent flying backwards. Unfortunately for the man he was sent careening towards two very upset Narutos.

"UWAHHHH!" the scream of pain from the shinobi brought the clones out of their trance as he shot towards the two.

"Oi gimme a hand." One clone said to the other who responded with a nod. It jumped into the air and transformed as a cloud of smoke blocked it from view. The enemy flew closer and just as he was within range the clone quickly reached into the smoke and swung out.

"HOOOOOOME RUN!" the boy shouted as a loud metallic ping was heard. The Sand shinobi who was shouting in pain before now gasped out before he was sent flying out of the stadium via the golden bat in the Naruto-clone's hands. He watched as the ninja flew through the air then threw the bat behind his back where it turned back into a Kage bunshin in a poof of smoke.

"Hmm well that was interesting."

"Quite. But forget that, we need to focus on what's going on around us. We need to protect as many people as we can while also protecting Takuma and Emi."

"Yeah…I hope the original and Ichi are doing okay."

They both nodded to one another before jumping back into the fray of things. This was war after all.

* * *

Naruto twisted out of the way as a stream of sand shot towards him. He landed on a branch but stuck for only a moment before he jumped once more. The branch imploded a second later as a wave of sand turned it into sawdust.

"Damn! This guy doesn't give up!" Naruto yelled in frustration. Naruto turned his head to the cause of this and felt fear ebb its way into his heart not for the first time this day. The mini Shuukaku that was Gaara was cackling madly as numerous tendrils of sand waved about him like tentacles. A few of the sand tentacles had chased Naruto but the others were now in the process of chasing his companions, minus Pakkun who had jumped onto a higher branch due to him being more of a tracker.

Suki growled angrily and activated the Karyuu Engo allowing the slim dragon of fire to orbit around her. The flames burned at most of the sand that attacked her but there were still too many. The curse mark was still active and was debilitating her. Suki grunted in pain as a line of sand impacted her shoulder and sent her spinning to the side. Before she hit the tree she was flying towards a blur of pink latched onto Suki's hand.

Sakura landed and quickly let go of Suki lest the fire around the girl burn her. Suki took a few deep breathes before standing and gripping her shoulder.

"Suki-chan are you okay?" Sakura asked.

"I'll be fine. My main concern are those things. You don't have any long range or wide range moves do you?" Suki asked Sakura. Sakura shook her head in a negative with an embarrassed frown. Suki turned to Ino who was standing to the side with a kunai in her hand. "And you?"

"I have a few long range attacks, but I don't think they will be effective. My Shintenshin no jutsu is my only sure fire jutsu that I can say would harm him." Suki was about to open her mouth to tell Ino to use it when she was cut off.

"You _cannot_ use that jutsu Ino," Naruto said as he hopped onto the branch the three girls were standing on. "Gaara has a demon sealed inside of him and its jacking up his mind. If you even try 'n go into his mind then I'm scared to think about what would happen to you." Naruto explained as he saw the confused looks on his companions.

"Y-you're scared for me?" Ino said surprised. Naruto grinned back and nodded.

"Of course I am. I don't want my friends hurt and no matter what I will protect my friends. I will protect everyone here no matter what!" Ino couldn't help the small blush that appeared before she huffed. Sakura smiled at her teammate's bravado. Naruto always did have that personality. It was sad that she wasn't able to see it till recently.

"Chivalrous idiot." Suki muttered with a grin.

A number of sand tendrils suddenly appeared around them and waved back and forth breaking up their small conversation and ending their sense of relief. Naruto cursed loudly before cocking his fist back and letting loose a Shotgun blast of chakra. Unfortunately for the boy he didn't hit all of them as a few lines of sand dodged to the side and were now shooting at the Genin. "Shit!"

A wave of wind shot out and the sand was blown away. Naruto looked up quickly and saw Temari with her fan unfolded and her stare hard. "Can you protect everyone here with that sort of power?" Temari jumped down from her perch and looked at her brother as he pulled back the sand that was attacking them. "What can you do against a monster like that?"

"He isn't a monster." Naruto said flatly now that he was realizing what was happening. His usual exuberance was missing while saying that. "Shuukaku is the monster trying to take control. Gaara is your brother isn't he?" Temari was silent.

"ISN'T HE!"

"Yes!" Temari yelled at Naruto.

"Do you see him as a MONSTER! Do you want me to kill him!"

"NO!" Temari cried out. "Please…PLEASE SAVE MY LITTLE BROTHER!" Temari screamed out as she brought her head down. The girl clenched her fist so tightly that it started to bleed. She could feel her eyes well up. It wasn't fair. All her life she tried to get to know Gaara but because of her father and the...damn Shuukaku! She was denied the right to get to know her youngest brother. The baby brother she was denied to take care of was taken from her and made into the Jinchuuriki he is now.

"Consider it done." Temari shot her head up and looked into the shining blue eyes that bore into her teal ones. "I am angry at you…" Naruto started. "I am extremely upset at you and your village for betraying us like this." Naruto turned away and stared at Gaara before crouching down and cracking his knuckles. "However, like I said before I will protect everyone and if you are helping us out than I will protect you too. Will you help us?" Temari recoiled slightly in shock before stuttering out a response.

"Y-yes?"

"Then I'll do my best to protect you too!" Naruto roared as he let out a burst of chakra. Everyone stared in shock at his outburst, no more than the princess of Suna. "Besides who am I to kill someone who has suffered like me, no perhaps suffered even more…" Naruto finished quietly as he let his chakra shroud his body slightly.

"Wait what do you mean?" Temari asked. Naruto didn't answer and instead crouched slightly before blurring away. "H-hey! Answer me!"

"Instead of talking so much why don't you help him?" Suki stated flatly as she stood up. Temari glared at the other girl and held up her fan.

"So do you know about blondy's past then?" Temari bit back. Suki flinched at that while Sakura and Ino looked down in shame. None of them really knew much about Naruto's childhood. Sasuke's, or more like Suki's, past was known due to the fact that it is hard to hide the destruction of a whole clan. She had a hard past, many in the village knew this. As far as Naruto went they knew that the adult populace did not like Naruto. In fact many of them tended to flat out ignore the boy as if he didn't exist. This fact was troubling. What did Naruto do to deserve the scorn of the village?

"Didn't think so. My question was valid." Temari said as she turned towards where Naruto was bouncing from tree trunk to trunk to get closer to Gaara. "Can he really do it?"

"Do what?" Sakura asked.

"Can he beat Gaara?"

"Tch of course," Suki answered. "But that idiot is going to need as much help as he can get. And I guess we're the ones who need to do it." The curse mark faded back as Suki gnashed her teeth together, her will pushing back the dark chakra. "As brave as that dobe is for thinking he can protect us. He seems to forget." Sakura and Ino walked to the side of Suki and tensed their muscles. Temari pulled her arms back and raised her fan. "We're stronger than he thinks!"

With that declaration the four girls jumped after the boy.

* * *

The life of an ANBU Captain was filled with sorrow. There was no escaping that in this line of profession. However, there are instances when something in life will stem the horror of being a shinobi. For ANBU Captain Uzuki Yugao this something was Gekkou Hayate, the man who was able to make her smile every time they were together. The man who she had pledged to one day settle down with, and this moment…the man whose name she was staring at on the Memorial Stone. A woman of her stature had no tears to shed. No right now her eyes were dry, but her heart was weeping.

"Captain…it is time," a bear masked ANBU stated. Yugao stood up from her kneeling position in front of the stone. With a heavy stare towards the village she nodded and turned to her team of four.

"Let's move out." Yugao clipped her cat mask onto her face. She was no longer the woman who mourned for her lost love. She was now Neko, Captain of the 5th division of the Konoha ANBU. She was now a cold hard killer and she was now ready to reap her revenge. 'I will avenge you Hayate…'

The ANBU team blurred away and started their task. As they sped around the village they left a wake of dead Suna and Oto ninja behind them. Their goal was simple. Take out the masses of enemy nin that were invading their home. As the team came close to the arena one of the ANBU tilted his head and grunted.

"Captain isn't that the Uzumaki kid," an ANBU with a bird mask said as he tilted his head towards a building. Yugao turned her head and pierced her gaze on what her subordinate was looking at. And it was true. There running up a building towards the large purple barrier was a spot of yellow and orange. "Should we get him away Captain?" Yugao was silent for a moment before speaking.

"We follow him. Take down any that try to get to him," Yugao said. "I want to see what he is doing."

As the ANBU team blurred off, Ichi was running as fast as he could towards the purple barrier where he knew the Hokage was at. As he rushed up the building he was surprised he wasn't met by any other ninja. It was an odd occurrence considering there must of have been hundreds of enemy ninja around. Strange.

Ichi landed with a thud on the roof and rushed up to the side. "Ojii-san!"

"HOLD IT!" Ichi stopped suddenly and turned around. There to the side were three ANBU with the one in the middle bearing an all white ensemble. The leader of that squad most likely. All of them were staring hard at the barrier that blocked them. "If you even so much as touch that you will burn to a crisp."

Ichi stared at the wall of purple that was blocking him and growled. What could he do to get past that damn wall! That's when he saw the Hokage appear in front of him. His battle armor was torn and frayed and he was injured all over. The black staff he was holding twirled in an attempt to block a dragon of water that appeared from nowhere. The Hokage then thrust out and to Ichi's amazement the staff elongated and smashed into the chest of a man the clone thought looked vaguely familiar.

"J-Jii-san?" The Sandaime looked over and was shocked to see the blonde boy.

"N-Naruto?" His moment of lapse allowed a branch to sneak up behind the old man and slam into his back.

"Ojii-san!" Ichi yelled. 'Dammit! How can I get through this?' Ichi dropped to his knees. "How do I help you Jii-san?"

* * *

Naruto jumped above a claw of sand and snapped his leg out in response. His heel caught Gaara in the face and the half transformed boy stumbled. Naruto didn't let up on his attack and brought his other foot out for an arcing round house. He blue chakra that covered him made a trail as his foot connected with the stomach of his opponent. Once the blonde landed he had to duck hastily to avoid being decapitated by the tail made from sand. Naruto hopped backwards as Gaara regained his footing and smashed his fist into where Naruto was just standing.

As Naruto dodged back Suki came down to take his place and engaged the mini Shuukaku. Gaara growled in frustration. The Uchiha would throw out punches and let the fire from her dragon impact the sand instead of actually punching him. To make matters more annoying that blonde and pink haired girl would rain down kunai and shuriken whenever they had a chance. And it seemed like the two annoyances had many chances.

Naruto landed next to Temari and breathed heavily. "Your brother is freaking strong."

"Why do you think I said it was no use fighting him?" Temari spat out as she swung her fan and shot a swirling blast of air at Gaara.

"Yeah well all I need is one good hit and I can beat him." Naruto surveyed the area and then looked at the girls that were currently fighting with Gaara. Their chances in winning we're extremely low. But odds never stopped Naruto and it wasn't going to start now. Looking at Temari's fan Naruto started to form a plan. "Oi Temari do me a favor." Temari arched her eyebrow but shrugged and nodded. "When I jump forward I want you to direct a stream of wind to me. I'm going in for an all-or-nothing attack."

"You think that will work?"

"At the moment it's gonna to have to." Naruto crouched down and flared the chakra around him briefly before he jumped forward. As Naruto flew forward Temari shot out a gust of wind that overtook the blonde boy and increased his speed potentially.

Naruto felt like he was flying. There was no other way to describe the feeling he had. It was pure euphoria. As he passed the surprised faces of his friends he couldn't help but grin. He was a blonde and orange arrow streaking at the boy covered in sand leaving a trail of blue in his wake. Naruto spun around so that his feet were facing first towards the ground he would land. Not even a second passed when he touched the ground did he disappear from view and reappear behind the monstrous form of Gaara.

'F-fast!' Suki thought amazed.

'No way...' Temari gaped. 'He used that Hirenkyaku move from the exams immediately when his foot hit something solid. With the extra boost from my wind his speed from one point to another was instant. That was almost just as fast as when he was using that strange orange chakra!'

Naruto clenched his jaw and suppressed a groan of pain as he straightened his body and cocked his fist. Using Hirenkyaku like that almost broke his legs. Naruto's chakra that was covering him like a second skin centered around his fist.

"What?" Gaara roared as he spun around to try and counter. He was too late however as Naruto rushed into his guard and pulled his fist back.

"You're done now Gaara! Reikoudan (Spirit Light Bullet)!" Naruto smashed his fist into the equivalent of Gaara's stomach while he was in that transformation and the half sand beast half boy hunched over. Gaara let out a choked gasp as Naruto roared and pushed with all his might. Finally Gaara was thrown back as a thin beam of energy shot out and sent him tumbling backwards. He reached the apex of his arc and then shot down towards the ground where Gaara slammed into it with a loud crash.

Naruto jumped up and somersaulted till he was above Gaara's form. 'I was hoping that Reikoudan would have knocked out Gaara but looks like one more hit should do it. I can still only transform one limb but at least I am more expansive.' Naruto quickly placed his hand into a seal as he finished his thoughts.

"Too bad that last move didn't get ya but another push and this one should definitely knock you out!"

"Oi wait you idiot!" Temari yelled as Naruto raised his leg. There was a puff of smoke that surrounded that appendage and from that smoke Naruto's leg stretched higher and higher, his orange pant leg replaced with the blue of a frayed shorts and his blue sandals now brown.

"Gomu Gomu no…"

'Who are you Uzumaki Naruto…what makes you so strong? How is it you can do this?.. My hate is greater than yours,' Gaara thought. His rage grew with every second as he gazed upon the blonde above him. 'You who protect when I live to destroy… You should not be able to defeat me. You cannot win!'

"Naruto don't knock him out!" Temari screamed out as Naruto's leg started to descend. "Don't do it!" Naruto foot shot down at a frightening pace as he grit his teeth in concentration. "NARUTO!"

"ON-!"

"UZUMAKIIII!" Gaara's scream of pure malice was accompanied with an explosion of sand that shot upwards. It impacted Naruto's foot and the boy was sent spiraling out of control. Naruto slammed into a tree and coughed loudly as he spit out some blood. His leg immediately retracted and turned back to normal in a puff of smoke. The girls quickly landed beside him and helped the blonde up. Naruto wearily looked up and his eyes widened in amazement and fear.

The half transformed Gaara was no longer present. In his place stood a great behemoth made of sand. It towered over the trees and was easily at least a hundred feet tall.

"N-no! It's all over for us! _It's_ come out!" Temari sobbed out.

"Sweet Kami…" Ino whispered as she dropped the kunai she was holding. It landed point first into the ground with a dull thud. It was the same sound that Sakura made as she dropped to her knees and gasped in horror.

"What are we supposed to do now?" breathed Suki as her dragon of fire faded away due to her depleting energy. Naruto sighed heavily and held his side in pain. Even if the odds looked grim he would still fight. Even if it killed him he would still fight. There was too much on the line and the lives of the four people around him, and the dog that was somewhere, were counting on _him_. Even if he had to use his final trump card he would fight on. Still …he _was_ allowed to be just as shocked as everyone else though. So with a haggard breath he put in his two cents.

"Oh what fresh new hell is this?"

* * *

Ichi moved around the sides of the large barrier keeping the elderly Hokage in his sights at all times. At the moment the Old Man was fighting the Shodaime and the Nidaime simultaneously. Ichi had finally realized who the old Hokage was fighting and was redoubling his efforts to get into the purple cube. Fighting one Kage was difficult enough, but fighting two was insane. Plus the Sandaime had Orochimaru slithering around him which did not make things any easier.

Sarutobi flipped away from a tree root that would have no doubt stabbed right through him. Spinning around he threw his staff at Orochimaru as the pale man tried to come up from behind and stab Hiruzen with Kusanagi. The staff flew above the Sannin before exploding in smoke and multiplying into a cage made of the black staves. The staves dropped down and enclosed Orochimaru in a cage who growled lowly. Sarutobi turned back to the other problem, the two Hokages that were healing from the wounds he once inflicted.

"Why aren't those other guys dying?" Ichi asked.

"They aren't truly alive," The ANBU commander answered. "The previous Hokages have been summoned via a vile technique called the Edo Tensei. It is used to summon the dead to do the bidding of the summoner, pulling them from the afterlife and they cannot return to death." Ichi recoiled in disgust.

"What sort of disturbed technique is that!"

"It was developed by our Nidaime…" Ichi was shocked even more. How could one of the Hokage's develop such a horrendous technique? "It was darker times back then Uzumaki-kun," the ANBU started, "war was raging and our village was constantly in battle. The technique was originally made to use the dead soldiers as cannon fodder. Not everything is as black and white as you think," he said at Ichi's disturbed look.

"But to make such a jutsu…"

"I don't know everything about it so I can't tell you all the facts. However there is a great cost to this technique." There was a cataclysmic explosion from beyond the barrier and the two stopped their talking to look. Orochimaru had slithered his way between the bars and sent a serpent of fire straight at the Hokage. Being the Professor he was, Sarutobi created a wind tunnel that enhanced and directed the now flaming inferno towards the great tree that was protecting the two deceased Kages.

"Ojii san is so strong…" Ichi whispered.

"But he is running out of time."

"What do you mean?"

"Our Hokage is old. Even if he is a legend, time waits for no man. We all grow old boy." The man draped in white turned his head towards the two clones that descended on the zombies. "And as time passed Sandaime-sama has grown weaker. He was only able to create two Shadow Clones after all those jutsus. But I am still impressed with those clones endurance."

"What endurance? We clones pop after one hit. Right?"

"You are a clone?"

"Mhmm!"

"Amazing. It is quite impressive that you have lasted so long. Normally clones would disperse after a single strong hit. However as you progress with the Kage bunshin skill you learn to reinforce your clones so that they last longer."

"How do you do that?"

The ANBU shrugged. "I do not utilize that technique." The man grunted in confusion suddenly as he peered into the barrier. "What is this technique the Sandaime-sama is using?"

Ichi looked over and shrugged. It looked strange that the two clones of the Hokage were holding the zombies and doing nothing. But a second later Ichi gasped in horror and fell on his backside. There was no way that what he was seeing was real. It couldn't be possible. The original had only seen its picture in books!

"S-Shinigami…"

* * *

Naruto stared up at the giant form of Shuukaku. This didn't look good. Naruto felt the telltale burning sensation around his ribs signifying that Kyuubi's chakra had started its process of healing him. As far as chakra levels went he was fine. Rekoudan wasn't as costly as it would seem and it wasn't like his Henge took all that much energy. He had mostly recovered from his fight during the exams and that was good because what he needed to do to fight what was in front of him was going to take _a lot_ of chakra.

"Now what are we supposed to do?" Sakura said in a defeated tone on the ground. The sheer size of Shuukaku alone was amazing. Naruto hummed in thought as he was helped up by Suki. He pushed her away with a thank you before groaning as he stretched.

"Well Temari what's the verdict? How do we stop that thing?"

"You can't! It's impossible now that he has brought out Shuukaku and fallen into his fake sleep. Right now Gaara is invincible!"

"Bah, no one is…uh unbeatable?" Naruto looked to Ino who nodded in confirmation before he continued, "yeah no one can be unbeatable. You just gotta keep on fighting with al ya got." As Naruto said that he reached to his side and unclipped his gloves. "And right now I'm going to give whatever I have. If Gaara is asleep then I'm just gonna have to wake him up."

Sakura looked from the giant behemoth to Naruto as he slipped on his gloves and let the metal cover his fingers. "Wait you're going to fight that thing! With that weird thing you used against Neji? That's crazy! Are you stupid! You're insane!"

"Crazy? Yes. Insane? Yes. But I don't think I'm stupid," Naruto said with a grin.

"That's to be proven," Suki whispered. Naruto glared at her before huffing and placing his hands in the ram seal. Even though Suki said that she was still curious on what her teammate was going to do. She had missed the first round so she didn't get the chance to see what Naruto had done. Maybe this was her chance.

"You guys find somewhere to stay safe. In fact find Pakkun! Alright here goes nothing!" Naruto closed his eyes and started to flare his chakra. "Haaaaaaaaa…" A fiery veil of blue chakra started to coalesce over the boy's body but he narrowed his eyes in frustration. This wouldn't be enough. Naruto pushed more chakra out with a loud shout and flared as much as he could. "HA!" The blue cloak of energy shrank a bit before exploding outward to the shock of the people around him.

'What chakra! How much can one person have?' Temari though amazed as she held her hand in front of her face to block from the wind picking up.

"Henge!" A cloud of smoke erupted around Naruto before being blown away in an instant. Once again the form of Hyper Naruto had appeared. Only this time the flame like chakra above his head and encasing his gloves was a shining blue that matched his calm eyes. Naruto looked down at his hands and clenched and unclenched them. This was what he what it was supposed to be during the Chuunin exams. However, since his orange form was already deemed Hyper Naruto this one needed to be different. It was the basis of Hyper form so it should be…

"HyperX."

"What?" asked Sakura.

"This form, it will be HyperX Naruto. It will make things easier to differentiate between the two like forms. But yes," Naruto looked up, "this will do just fine." And with that and a burst of blue Naruto flew up towards Shuukaku.

HyperX Naruto stopped flying and floated in front the face of the dreaded One Tailed demon Tanuki. The Ichibi was big, massive even, but Naruto easily spotted the sleeping form of Gaara nestled on the forehead in the sand. It would be difficult but he may be able to get to the red haired boy.

"**LOOOK IT'S THE LITTLE BLONDE INSECT THAT THOUGHT HE WAS STRONG!**" The Shuukaku squealed in delight. "**HE EVEN LEARNED TO FLY! NOW I CAN SQUASH YOU LIKE THE GNAT YOU ARE!**" Naruto frowned at that comment. He wasn't a bug dammit but if this thing wanted to be stung it would get its wish. Shuukaku swung one of its massive arms at Naruto who merely dodged and flew up the arm. As he flew up the arm spikes of sand started to shoot up at the boy to try and impale him. Unluckily for the Shuukaku HyperX Naruto had the Hyper Intuition and that was all he needed to completely predict where to go. Naruto stopped near Shuukaku's head where its neck would most likely be.

'There's my target,' Naruto thought. 'If I can hit that place just right I may be able to make the Ichibi stumble enough for me to get a chance to wake Gaara up. I only got one shot at this. If I mess up then it will know what I'm planning and will never give me a chance again.' Naruto flew out of the way of a few tendrils of sand and readied himself when he froze.

"No…no it can't be…"

* * *

Ichi had backed away in horror as he saw the silhouette of the Shinigami pull out the souls of both the dead Hokages. After his initial shock of seeing the Death Reaper he was able to see what had become of the bodies. The clone gagged. Behind the haze of the purple wall were the halfway rotted corpses of the two Sound Genin that were in the exams but had lost during the prelims. They were sacrifices. That's the cost of bringing someone back from the dead, the life of another.

Ichi turned his head to see the Hokage engage Orochimaru in a fierce weapon to weapon battle. It was an amazing display and when the Hokage knocked the shining blue sword from Orochimaru's hand Ichi practically cheered. However that's when things fell apart.

Sarutobi believed himself to be a strong man. He had lived a full life, and an exceptionally long one considering his career. He had had his good times and his bad times. But to the Sandaime that was life. On this day he was fighting the battle that he truly wished he did not have to do. However for his village this needed to be done.

"Orochimaru this is the end for you!" Sarutobi yelled as he threw his staff at the unarmed Sannin. As the diamond hard staff spun at the pale man, the King of Monkeys Enma stuck his arm out from his staff from to try and catch the man off guard. Unfortunately for him Orochimaru let a number of snakes fly from his sleeve and catch the arm. Enma was thrown to the ground where he transformed back to his monkey form but not without receiving a few bites that weakened him greatly. However his job was done.

Hiruzen sped into Orochimaru's guard grabbed the man's shoulders while also pushing on some pressure points that would make Orochimaru's arms too numb for a counter.

"What are you playing at old man?" the Sannin hissed. Hiruzen merely chuckled.

"You should be seeing it by now. Soon it will all be over for both of us!" Orochimaru stared in confusion at his former master before he gasped in shock as the form of the Shinigami appeared behind the Sandaime.

"You stupid old fool! Let me go or you'll kill is both!"

"That is the idea Orochimaru! Now farewell." Orochimaru screamed in frustration and used all his strength to move his hand. Enma saw what was happening and yelled a warning.

"Look ANBU guy Ojii-san is going to-."

"Sarutobi look out!" Ichi's sentence was cut off as he witnessed the Hokage get stabbed through his back by the Kusanagi.

"O…jii…san." Ichi whispered. Sarutobi grit his teeth as he felt his life force fading. He wouldn't be able to seal all of Orochimaru, but he would take his arms.

"Sadly you will not join me in Shinigami-sama's stomach. However your arms will! Shiki Fuujin!" The Shinigami sliced his knife and thus the technique ended. As Sarutobi fell he turned his head to the petrified face of the blonde. He smiled. "Live well Naruto. May your Will of Fire burn as the leaves of Konoha fly through the wind." The Sandaime Hokage landed with a thud, a peaceful smile on his old weathered face. Enma disappeared with a shout of rage and surprise, his connection to the world disconnected.

Orochimaru cursed and yelled for his guards. He needed to leave now. As the barrier fell and the Sound Four went to retrieve their master Ichi continued to stare. The body of the Third Hokage looked so peaceful and yet Ichi knew the truth. He was dead.

Anger bubbled within the clone. Righteous fury that had never been felt in a shadow clone before flowed. He had killed him. He had _killed_ him. HE HAD KILLED HIM!

"OROCHIMARU!" Ichi didn't know when it happened or how. All he knew was that he passed the ANBU that were stuck in a golden web and then he jumped after the group for Oto. From there is where his time ended for as he jumped a blast of crimson energy took his place and rocketed at the group. It smashed into Orochimaru's face and he screamed in agony. Ichi did not know what he had did before he poofed away but the searing burn upon Orochimaru's left eye was proof enough.

* * *

Far off the distance HyperX Naruto stood still in the air. An image of a dead Sandaime in his mind. The sickening feeling that he didn't know if this was fake, or if it was a premonition made the boy stop his attack. It cost him. A giant arm of sand swung at the boy and sent flying high into the sky. He coughed up some blood and spit out a glob as some trailed down his check. That was the wake up call he needed.

'It was a just my imagination,' Naruto told himself. 'But if I don't hurry this up will it happen? No time for questions now! Need to finish this up NOW!' Naruto flew back into position and dodged all the hits that came for him like he was on auto pilot, which technically he was.

Naruto walked through the sloshing water and looked into the giant cage. A ruby red eye stared down at him in disgust. Naruto said nothing and only reached down into the water and held his hand under for a few seconds.

"I only need a small amount. You won't even notice it's gone," Naruto said before his form disappeared. The Kyuubi blinked in surprise. There was no banter between them? What could make the boy like that? The giant fox demon looked down into the waters to view what had happened recently. An image popped up and its red eyes narrowed. That could not be good.

Naruto was back to reality and felt the chakra in his left hand pulse before changing from blue to orange. It was time. He flew quick and close and then held the hand that was still brimming with the fiery blue chakra out in front of him. The other was pointed behind him.

"**WHAT'S THIS? DOES THE INSECT WISH TO DIE? DO YOU RESIGN TO YOUR FATE?" **Shuukaku cackled gleefully.

"Don't stand too close you crazy ass demon," Naruto said calmly. "Don't you know?" The boy's hands started to pulse and the chakra started to flicker higher. "Blue fire is hotter than red…" Shuukaku blinked in confusion before its focus shifted to the increasing brightens of the blonde's gloves and that's when it felt it. The spike in chakra.

"X-BURNER!" HyperX Naruto bellowed as dome shaped blast of orange chakra erupted behind him. In front of him shot a great fiery blue beam of chakra that lit up the sky.

"**GEGH!**" The blast shot a hole straight through Shuukaku's neck and the great sand demon stumbled backwards. Taking his chance Naruto disappeared in a burst of speed and then appeared in front of the sleeping Gaara. Raring his foot back Naruto shot it forward and popped Gaara right out of the sand and up where he grabbed the boy by his shirt.

"**NO! NO! NO! I DON'T WANT TO GO BACK NOOOOO!**" Shuukaku screamed out as the sand beast fell to the ground. Gaara's eyes were wide with fear as the two boys floated in mid-air.

"No please… stay away. No more! I don't want to die. I just want to exist!" Gaara said hysterically. Naruto said nothing as they started to float lower, his head turned down.

"To be alone and have no one to care for you is the worst isn't it." Gaara stopped screaming for Naruto not to hurt him and quieted down slowly. "I know how you feel Gaara," Naruto lifted his head up to show tears making Gaara blink in shock. "I know how you feel so much that it hurts. I could have been like you. But as time passed I worked my way into the lives of some very precious people. And I would do anything to protect them."

"Precious…people?" Gaara asked confused.

"They are where I get my strength and I swear that I will not let anyone hurt them. I will fight you again with all I have if you continue Gaara." Naruto said fiercely. Gaara was silent.

"You are strong Uzumaki."

"Because of them."

"But I do not have anyone precious who cares for me."

"You do Gaara. Your siblings care for you deeply. Temari begged me not to kill you. She loves you dearly. You should learn to love them too." Gaara was silent to Naruto's proposal before he responded.

"I…will try."

"That's all you need to do. Unfortunately, I wish you did it before all this happened."

"Why do you say that?"

"I'm exhausted and we are going down," Naruto said flatly. Naruto was covered in ninja smoke and it cleared to reveal him back to normal once more and unfortunately for the two boys they were still quite high up. Gaara looked down as gravity started to take them in her sweet embrace.

"Hmm. Interesting. Will we die?" Gaara said as they started to plummet to the ground.

"No idea Gaara, but gravity sure is a bitch," Naruto answered as he felt exhaustion take him. He didn't notice as a blonde blur flew in front of him or the arms that grabbed onto him. All that was on his mind was that image of the Hokage lying down lifeless with a smile on his face. Naruto prayed to Kami that that was only just a bad feeling. He prayed that that wasn't true.

* * *

**Again I would like to apologize for a long update. This story will not be discontinued due to all the help I have recieved. Giving up this story would probably make them piiiissseeeed after all our notes. Also Tigee86 had beta-ed much of the early chapters so I'm pretty sure he'd be kinda ticked off if his hard work went to waste. Btw the new chapter of his story came out and it is a great way for him to come back. Welcome back Tigee. And to all you readers out there sorry again. I will be updating this in the next month or so. It was just that I was having quite the issue with this arc. In the words of DragonBard, it is hard to get a fresh spin on an arc that has been done over and over again. Anywho I hope you all enjoy and please feel free to review and let me know your thoughts or if you predict a Mimic showcasing soon. Peace.**

**PS. Have any of you noticed that my chapters recently have been titled very familiarly?**

_I don't think I mentioned this but DragonBard asked me to clarify how Naruto has Hyper Intuition. If you guys want the full explanation of Hyper/X mode then review or PM me since this is just an excerpt from my personal notes. Review would be better so that way my PM box isn't over run o.o_

**The reason that the chakra is now only concentrated to Naruto/Tsuna's head is because Naruto actually mimicked the Hyper-Intuition. He used all the chakra and centered almost all of it to his head to release all the endorphins and limiters in his brain and calmed the blood flow around the central part of his brain to give him the calm calculating persona. This gives him a heightened perception and reflexes that can be confused as being psychic. **


	13. A Shibobi That I Used to Know

Chapter 13: A Ninja That I Used to Know

**Alright everyone here is the next episode in the critically acclaimed **_**Behold the Mimic**_**…I wish it would be critically acclaimed. Anyways hope you all like it and please feel free to leave me some constructive criticism. Oh and by the way I'm not holding this story for ransom for reviews or anything. I just really need to try and manage my time better. Though I do enjoy reviews since it is technically what we as writers on this site use as currency, so a quick thank you to the DragonBard, who is my greatest help and help in writing this, to Tigee86 for their help in the beginning. And finally to you the fans. In the words of great man, "Let's Get It On!"**

**Intro Music ON: STFU by Girugamesh**

**Cover: Naruto walking down a dirt path. Behind him are a line of clones holding large scrolls above their heads yelling at each other. Naruto has a serene look on his face as he looks to the sky and in his hand is a stray leaf.**

* * *

_Ring... ring..._

_Ring... ring..._

_"Hello?"_

_"..."_

_"Hello?"_

_"H-Haku-chan..."_

_"Oh Naruto-kun! I was wondering if you had accidentally dialed our phone."_

_"He's gone Haku-chan."_

_"Naruto-kun?"_

_"..."_

_"Who's gone? What happened Naruto-kun?"_

_"He killed him..."_

_"Naruto-kun?"_

_"Hokage-jii jii. He's gone and it's all his fault."_

_"Oh no... Naruto, what happened? Who killed the Sandaime Hokage?"_

_"..."_

_"Naruto-kun?"_

_"__**Orochimaru**__..."_

* * *

The rain was a cold blanket that froze Naruto to the bone. However he did not care. His eyes were bleak as he stared at the coffin of the Sandaime Hokage, former leader of Konohagakure. The sound of Konohamaru crying to his side pierced through the sound of pouring water.

_'How could this have happened?'_ Naruto thought. He wished he could cry. Oh how he did. If he could cry then it would give warmth to his numb face. Naruto looked behind him and saw the mass of shinobi and civilian alike were there to mourn the loss of the Hokage. The Hokage was well loved in Konoha, amongst shinobi and civilian alike. Naruto looked forward once more to watch as the Old Man's old teammates stepped up to the wooden coffin and lay down their flowers next to the picture of Sarutobi Hiruzen. As the two set down the white roses and rose for a short prayer, Naruto gripped his own flower, letting the thorns rip into his skin. The blood that dripped down his hand was quickly washed away thanks to the pelting rain.

Finally it was his turn. As Naruto followed Sakura and Suki, he looked behind him to see the line of his fellow Genin. Kneeling in front of the coffin Naruto set his rose down and bowed his head. _'Old Man…I'm sorry. I wasn't able to save you. I could have saved you if I was stronger. If only I was stronger I would have been able to help you.'_ Naruto clenched his fist again. _'Forgive me Old Man.'_ A pat on his shoulder made Naruto look up to see the solemn face of Kiba, his hand ready with his own rose. Naruto nodded and stood up once more. It was time to let the others grieve too.

Naruto stepped back into his position and turned his head once more to the crying Konohamaru who was being placated by Iruka.

"Iruka-sensei, why did he die?" Naruto asked quietly. Iruka looked up and frowned.

"Well Naruto that is a tough question. Many people die for different reasons. Some people die for glory. Some people die for money. However, the death that Hokage-sama suffered was for neither of those. He died to protect his precious people." Naruto flinched a bit.

"His precious people…"

"Correct. This whole village is precious to him Naruto. He sacrificed his life so that we all could live on. He died to protect the villages Will of Fire."

"Our Will of Fire, I-I think I understand," Naruto answered. He didn't understand really, but he didn't want to think any more than he had to. All he got from that was that the Sandaime died to protect _his_ village, the people _he_ loved. That was all he needed to understand at the moment. The rain continued to drape over the village. It was going to be a long walk home.

Naruto walked down the path leading to his apartment. His black clothes clung to his body and he looked at them blankly. He never understood why people thought he would look good in darker colors. They really contrasted with his looks. Naruto pushed the door of his apartment open slowly and trudged to his bed. He plopped down on the mattress and closed his eyes letting the day's events pass over him. Naruto already knew what was happening as he felt the pull on his mind.

* * *

"**So have you come to give yourself up boy?**" the Kyuubi growled from behind the cage. Across from the large gate Naruto stood with the water moving around his feet. He walked slowly over to the gate and looked up with hazy eyes. Turning around he sat down in the water and used the metal as a back rest.

"**What are you playing at human?**" Naruto said nothing as he hung his head low. The Kyuubi growled and raised its claw ready to smash it into the gate that separated the two. It may not be able to grab the boy but it sure can throw Naruto around!

Drip

The Kyuubi halted its movements and perked its long ears up.

_Drip…Drip_

Tears of pain, of pent up sorrow, had finally been let free over Naruto's loss. The grief that had been hidden all throughout the funeral and for the longest time came rushing out of Naruto as he threw his head back and let out a piercing wail. His sorrow was screamed upwards as he cried out, tears falling from his azure eyes and splashing to the floor. The Kyuubi lowered its paw and frowned as the human before it cried his heart out. It couldn't torment Naruto, not when he was like this, not right now.

"**The pain of lost looms over the life of a shinobi Naruto**," the Kyuubi growled lowly as it lay down on its paws. "**But I understand that this loss is one of the greatest losses anyone could ever suffer. I should know. I've been inside you for your whole life.**"

Naruto continued to cry even as the Kyuubi spoke. The loss of a person who means so much to you is always a cause of grief. But for Naruto, a boy who had nothing and no family, he had loss someone who had made him feel loved. Naruto had lost the only family he had ever come to know, the grandfather he never had. The Kyuubi knew this and lay quietly as Naruto sobbed, his cries of anguish echoing into the darkness.

* * *

It had been two weeks since the funeral. Two weeks since the cremation of one of the greatest Hokages Konoha had ever seen. And it had been two weeks since Naruto had been seen and at the moment Suki was annoyed. There was a break on team meetings for a few days, but when they started again Naruto didn't show up. Kakashi had let it slide, but after he missed three days everyone started to worry. He wasn't found at his house. He wasn't found at the ramen stand, and he wasn't at any training ground that he had normally visited. Suki and Sakura were frustrated over Kakashi's lack of response. He only said to not worry too much about Naruto and that he would be back soon.

That wasn't good enough for the two girls, so they both decided to go search for him. So it was now at that moment that Suki was huffing down the road with a scowl on her face. It was mid-day now so the sun was at its zenith. Suki had already searched the local training ground and Ichiraku's. The blonde haired dobe wasn't there. Growling in frustration Suki decided it was time to play hard ball. Trudging up the stairs she stopped at the door of Naruto's apartment. Recently all she and Sakura had been doing is knocking. Everyone who has come to Naruto's house had knocked and gotten no response. No more knocking. Not this time. With a growl of aggravation Suki lifted her foot and slammed it upon the door.

"DOBE! You better be here!" Suki yelled out with her eyes full of rage. Her angry expression started to fade away as the sight in front of her registered in her mind. There Naruto stood naked with a towel around his waist held loosely. His other hand was holding another towel up to his head to dry his hair that was still wet from the shower he just got out of. Suki's dark eyes met Naruto's blue ones and both eyes started to widen considerably.

"S-Suki?"

"Naruto?" Naruto's hold on the towel around his waist slipped and it fell to the ground with a thud. There was a moment of silence between the two as they both slowly looked down, Suki with her foot still held up.

"WHAT THE HELL YOU PERVERT!"

_Slap!_

It was five minutes later that Suki and a fully dressed Naruto were sitting at a table. Suki had her eyes closed and was sipping tea calmly, or looked calm but the fierce blush and the twitching eyebrow betrayed any sense of calm she had. Naruto on the other hand was looking into his cup of tea with his own blush of shame and embarrassment. Suki took another sip of her tea before looking up at her teammate.

"So where have you been for the longest time dobe?" Naruto chuckled and rubbed his neck.

"Um training."

"Oh really? I really haven't seen you at any of the training fields," Suki said quietly. She smiled but Naruto felt a bead of sweat drop down his head. That wasn't a happy smile. "Naruto have you been here this whole time? If not then where have you been? It's been two weeks. You haven't come to training or seen anyone since…since the funeral." Naruto sighed. He really had no idea how much time had passed. He had been too wrapped up in what he was doing.

"Naruto you need to let go. Sandaime-sama died and there was nothing you can do. What could you have done? You weren't even ther-."

"I saw him die."

Suki almost dropped her tea as Naruto cut her off. He was looking at her with such a serious expression. It didn't belong on his face in her opinion.

"What do you mean?"

"I saw Hokage jii-san die. He died in front of my face. I saw his last smile. I heard his final words, and they were directed at me," Naruto said quietly.

"Naruto, how?"

"Funny thing about the Kage Bunshin no jutsu, whenever the clone dispels its memories come back to the original. Ichi, my main clone, went to try and help the Old Man. However there was nothing I could do, not with how I am now. After the Hokage died Ichi dispelled I guess, since after that I have no more recollection of what happened." Naruto was quiet once more and stood up. Suki was silent as she watched Naruto meander around his living room. Now that she had time she was able to look around and notice the mess that was strewn about the apartment. Numerous books were littered around the area. Suki set her cup down and grabbed a random one. It was one of the orange books that the team had received back at Wave, Naruto's special copy.

Naruto reached his kitchen and set down his cup. He was really tired at the moment. He watched as Suki picked up his book Kakashi-sensei gave him then set it down. She then looked at all the other books that were lying around. The sound of footsteps made both look towards the hallway where a disheveled looking Naruto holding a book to his face walked. Naruto sighed wearily as it seemed to walk around the stray books that were lying around.

"Watch where you're going or you're going to fall," Naruto said. The clone looked up and noticed where it was.

"Ah sorry boss, I was trying to figure out what a few of these things meant," the clone stated. "Like what does the word Deconstruction mean?" Naruto shrugged. If his clone didn't know it why should he? The clone was essentially him.

"It means to break down. Like how something gets broken apart or disintegrated," Suki answered as she stared at the messy looking clone. 'What is Naruto doing having his clone read?' Naruto and his bunshin looked at Suki in confusion and she sighed. "Like when your noodles in your ramen breakdown into little pieces." Both blondes suddenly lit up in understanding.

"Ah now I understand. Okay thanks Suki. As for you," Naruto said to the bunshin. "Hand it over. We should all be done for the day. I just learned that we've been out of commission for longer than I realized." The clone nodded and handed over the blue covered book it was reading. Naruto set it on the desk and waved his arm. The clone disappeared in a plume of smoke and Naruto cringed in pain. Suki raised her eye brow in confusion and then turned towards where she presumed Naruto's room was. Another round of poofing sounds came from the hall and Naruto rubbed his head in pain.

"What's wrong?"

"Damn that hurts. Those guys weren't slacking around. When all the clones dispel at once it can be really bad cause they give me a whole rush of memories, and that can give me a headache." Naruto came back to his living room and slumped on his couch. "You wanted to know what I've been doing for the longest time. I've been training my hardest. And not just my body"

"I can see that," Suki said as she picked up a book titled Basic Seals for Dummies. "Dobe, can you even understand what you are reading?" Naruto shrugged.

"Sort of, kind of. But that doesn't really matter anymore. I should probably meet Kakashi-sensei," Suki joined Naruto on the couch and reached for her tea again. "I hope he isn't that mad at-." A loud crash jolted the two teens and they turned to the side.

"ALRIGHT NARUTO TIME TO GET OFF YOUR ASS!" Takuma yelled as he kicked Naruto's door open. Takuma's face melted from its look of anger to one of surprise as he took in the appalled face of Naruto and the frown of the girl next to him. Emi poked her head out from behind her brother and waved embarrassingly at Naruto who waved back numbly. The cake for Naruto was when the top hinge that connected the door to the wall fell off and clattered to the floor. Takuma lowered his foot slowly and gulped as Naruto's eye started to twitch. "I can fix that."

"Well it's good to see you too," Naruto muttered as he walked to the door and let them in. Takuma immediately went to work on the door hinge and grabbed the piece of metal on the floor. Setting it to the wall with one hand he flicked his other hand and a multitude of tools spread out against his palm. Humming in thought he grabbed one before flicking his wrist again and let the others fall back into his long sleeved shirt.

Emi walked out from behind her brother and walked up to Naruto. "Naruto-kun…" Naruto opened his mouth to respond but was brought into a bone crushing hug from the girl that made him gasp for air. Suki, who was watching quietly, suddenly felt very annoyed for some reason. Emi let go and Naruto took a deep breathe.

"I'm fine Emi-chan," Naruto said after a few deep breathes. "You and Takuma-nii didn't need to worry bout me ya know." Emi nodded and turned to where her brother was finishing fixing the door. Takuma wiped his forehead and walked over to where Naruto was.

"So you okay bud?" Takuma asked patting the blonde's shoulder.

"I'm fine. I just lost track of time with my training," Naruto sighed. "Look at all I was able to accomplish." Naruto waved at the mess of books around his living room and the scrolls that were draped over his TV. "Don't worry about anything you guys. I'm going to be okay."

"You sure dobe?" Suki asked standing up. Naruto nodded and headed for the now closed and fixed door.

"Yeah no worries Suki, let's just find Kakashi-sensei," Naruto said as he opened his door. As he opened it fully his field of view was permeated by a large wooden clog. The words "Oh damn," were the only things he could say before everything went black.

SLAM!

* * *

Naruto walked through the streets with a large icepack held to his forehead. A deep frown marred his features as he kept his eyes forward. Behind him walked the three people that decided to crash his house and in front of him walked the man who gave him the bump on his head. Jiraiya looked behind him and grinned feebly at the glare the blonde Genin gave him.

"Ah come on kid! I didn't mean to kick you in the head!" Jiraiya said exasperated.

"You were going to kick my door down," Naruto deadpanned.

"Well yeah, but there was good reason for that."

"Your kick would have broken down my door. Takuma-nii just fixed it too." Jiraiya chuckled and waved off the boy as Naruto seethed. Suki looked in wonder at the strange relationship that Naruto had with apparently one of the Legendary Sannin. It was quite odd seeing such a powerful ninja in person. Jiraiya looked at Suki and grinned suddenly.

"Oho I see my young student has gotten himself a girlfriend already. Oh wait is that two girlfriends," Jiraiya leered as he looked at Emi and Suki. Suki's opinion of the Sannin suddenly dropped then and there. As far as she could tell, all Sannin were apparently perverts. Hell, one actually bit her neck. If that doesn't scream pedophile than she didn't know what did. Naruto growled and threw the icepack he had at Jiraiya who nimbly dodged it and grabbed it from the air.

"Don't be a perv Ero-Sennin. You know Suki is my teammate and Emi-chan is Takuma's sister," huffed Naruto.

"Emi-chan eh? Why does she get to be Emi-chan and not dear Suki here hmm?" Jiraiya teased.

"Shut up!"

"Why don't you call me Suki-chan?" Suki asked innocently. Naruto blushed and sputtered causing the Uchiha to grin wryly. It was good to tease Naruto. Seems like he was back to normal. Naruto grumbled and followed Jiraiya as they reached the large building that was the Hokage's office. Naruto looked up at the large kanji for fire and resisted the urge to sigh. What was going to happen now? Takuma and Emi stopped at the doorway and Naruto turned to them.

"Thanks you two…for worrying about me," Naruto said gratefully. Takuma and Emi smiled at the blonde. "It really means a lot to me."

"No problem Naruto," Takuma said giving Naruto a quick thumbs up.

"We are happy to help out any way we can, Naruto-kun." Emi smiled. Naruto grinned and nodded as the two waved and headed back to their shop. Jiraiya cleared his throat and Naruto nodded. He and Suki followed the man through the double doors into the Hokage's office. Inside stood Sakura and Kakashi, one who immediately ran towards Naruto the other with his infamous orange book out. Naruto opened his arms as Sakura came towards the boy, fully expecting a hug. What he got was critical punch to his jaw that sent him into the wall where he stuck there for a moment before sliding down.

"K.O." Kakashi said as he snapped his book shut and walked to the moaning Naruto. "Well then, it's good to see you Naruto."

"I'm sorry Kakashi-sensei," Naruto moaned out.

"Oh don't worry about me. I knew where you were. I'm not a Jounin for nothing. However, she," Kakashi pointed to the fuming Sakura, "is not a Jounin. Although right now even as a Jounin, I don't want to get between her and you." Sakura stomped over to Naruto and grabbed him by the scruff of his orange jacket.

"Do you have any idea how worried we've been!" Sakura screamed as she shook Naruto back and forth.

"I'm so sorry-," Naruto said between shakes. "I'll make it up to you!-" Sakura huffed and let the dizzy boy down. Naruto stumbled a bit before he straightened out and looked to the desk that was once full of papers.

Standing on each side of the desk were Koharu and Homura, Sarutobi's old teammates. Naruto stood next to his team while Jiraiya stood behind the blonde.

"Team 7 is now complete and reporting for duty Elders," Kakashi stated while he pulled opened his book once more.

"Team 7 will join in the reconstruction of the village till further notice," Koharu stated sternly. The three Genin bowed and started for the door. Jiraiya tapped Kakashi's back and gave him a subtle nod. Kakashi nodded back quickly before ushering out his students.

Jiraiya turned back to the Elders as the door closed and crossed his arms over his chest. "Now before you both say something I'm telling you right now that I'm not becoming Hokage." The two Older ninja frowned at Jiraiya's abrasive attitude but ignored it in favor of letting the man finish. "I do know, however, who I can get to become the new Hokage. All I ask is that you let me bring someone along. I have a little side project I want to work on," Jiraiya said with an eerie chuckle.

* * *

Naruto hammered the final nail into the plank of wood that would become the roof for yet another destroyed house. Wiping the sweat from his brow he got up from his crouched position with a grunt. As he surveyed his work he felt another surge of memories flood into his mind. His clones were making great progress with the idea he had came up with. The only problem was how he could actually apply what he was working on outside of fantastic theory. Heaving a sigh, Naruto wiped his forehead and jumped down silently from the roof.

After being stuck home moping for two weeks he had forgotten how much less he worked out and went outside. He needed to get back into his old training habits. Not to say he was out of shape, far from it he just felt rigid. Naruto stretched a bit and tightened his orange jacket that was tied around his waist. He had taken off his heavy jacket and the shirt and under-armor underneath because of how hot the day was. And for some reason Naruto would notice a bunch of girls hide behind nearby houses as he worked and giggle. How strange. Naruto shrugged and looked back at the house he was repairing.

It seemed that the invasion did a lot of collateral damage. Thank Kami that there were barely any casualties. Naruto reached down to grab a handful of nails when he was roughly grabbed by his arm. The boy had barely a moment to yell in protest or see who grabbed him before he felt the lurch of high speed movement and he was gone from his previous position in a plume of smoke.

Naruto found himself inside his own apartment with Jiraiya gripping his arm with a wry grin. Naruto growled lowly and pulled his arm away.

"Alright Ero-Sennin what's the big deal? I was in the middle of fixing those houses," said Naruto as he went to his fridge to get a bottle of water.

"Pack your stuff brat. We're headin out in five minutes." Naruto choked a bit on his drink and gave the man a disbelieving look.

"You're kidding right?"

"Nope. This was already discussed with your sensei. This is an impromptu mission of high class importance that I was given and I decided to take you along," Jiraiya replied. Naruto stared at the man for a moment before walking to his door once more.

"Not interested. I've already missed enough time with my team so I can't miss anymore," Naruto said over his shoulder.

"Don't worry about it kid. They are already going to be training as well so trust me we'll just be gone for a month tops," Naruto continue to walk so Jiraiya pulled out his trump card. "I was also hoping to teach you a special technique while we were out there." That stopped the blonde in his tracks.

"Special technique?"

"Yup. High A-rank actually." Naruto turned and grinned.

"When do we leave?"

* * *

The Sannin and the blonde had left immediately once Naruto was ready. After a quick shower and sealing everything he needed into a few scrolls they were off. The fact that the boy had some basic knowledge of seals greatly surprised Jiraiya and when Naruto showed that he had the books to continue to learn the man couldn't help but have a sense of pride. Maybe the boy would be able to learn the art of sealing from him also.

The two of them were about two days into their journey and at the moment they had reached one the towns that lay on the outskirts of Konoha. Naruto looked on in wonder at the streets that were bustling with an enormous amount of people. The only reaction the boy could give to such a sight was a low whistle of appreciation.

"They are having a festival at the moment," Jiraiya explained. "So the streets are pretty crowded."

"Sweet a festival!" Naruto started to rush forward when he was pulled back. The boy stumbled but turned around with an angry huff. "Oi what's the big idea Ero-Sennin? If it is a festival then I'm heading down there!"

Jiraiya shook his head with a chuckle. "Cool your head brat. Remember why we even came on this journey. We need to look for leads for my old teammate and her whereabouts." Naruto sulked not so quietly before sighing.

"Fine, fine so where do we start."

"Well you're too young to go to the local bars to try and get some information there but maybe you can find out information on the street." Naruto nodded at the Sannin's proposal. Technically the boy was legally an adult due to his occupation, however he had no desire to go into a bar filled with drunkards.

"What about that jutsu you were going to teach me Ero-Sennin?" Jiraiya sighed and rubbed his chin in thought. Should he have the boy start already? After a minute of contemplation the man shrugged and grabbed his bag from his back and started to rifle through it. After finding what he was looking for he motioned Naruto to follow him which the boy did. The duo walked through the streets as Jiraiya looked for something, Naruto said nothing and let his teacher do what he needed to do. After some searching Jiraiya let out a small 'ah' before walking to a metal spout that had a hose attached to it that was next to shop.

Twisting the hose off, Jiraiya placed what he had in his hand over the spout and the let the water fill the rubber balloon that Naruto could now see. Once it was filled Jiraiya tied it up and handed it to Naruto before filling another one and holding it in front of him.

"The jutsu I'm going to teach you is very difficult kid. It is broken down into three steps gaining difficulty as you progress. For this first step you must pop this," Jiraiya motioned to the water balloon, "with your chakra." Naruto tilted his head in confusion and looked at the sloshing orb of rubber and water in his right palm.

"How?" Jiraiya grinned and held up his balloon to face level. Naruto watched fascinated as the balloon started to twitch and small bumps started to form on the outside. Before the blonde knew it the balloon popped and water was splashed out at him. "Hey what the hell?" Naruto yelled as some water splashed into his face. Jiraiya just chuckled before handing Naruto a handful of balloons.

"You need to pop the balloon using only your chakra. Here's a hint, this step is all about rotation, get it? So how would rotation pop that balloon? Think about it while I go do some searching." Naruto looked at the balloon blankly before looking back towards the man to ask another question. The white haired Sannin was already gone. Naruto grumbled in frustration before walking up to the water spout.

"Rotation eh? Hmmm," Naruto held the balloon out in front of him and started push his chakra into the sphere. He then started to spin his chakra while also spinning the water inside. The ball twitched a bit but nothing was happening. Humming in thought Naruto started to put more chakra into the balloon and tried to spin his chakra faster. After about half an hour of him standing next to the wall of the shop the boy had started to get the water balloon to shake in his hand. That wasn't enough though. Letting go of a breathe he didn't realize he was holding Naruto sighed and decided to fill up a bunch of balloons so that if he did get this step down then he could practice. After placing a number of water balloons into his bag, Naruto carefully placed it back on his back and then headed off.

As he walked around he tried to recall the information Jiraiya had given him about his mysterious teammate. Apparently her name was Tsunade and she would most likely be at anywhere there was gambling. She was also known to have horrible luck and would skip out on any of her debts. Naruto scratched his head with his free hand and looked around. Amidst all the chaos from the festival he couldn't really find anything that resembled a casino. Plus the only casino that he could compare to was the one in Konoha and that one had a huge sign with dice and playing cards on it. Naruto didn't think there was going to be something so conspicuous in this place. Not with all the other decorations.

Suddenly Naruto spotted a crowd of people hanging around a large building. His curiosity piqued, Naruto walked over to the crowd while continuing to try and spin his chakra in the balloon. Through an amazing amount of luck it turns out that Naruto had happened upon one of the casinos that were littered around this town. Naruto meandered through the throng of people and stopped next to one of the card tables that weren't being used. Looking around the boy decided to sit down and ask the dealer if he saw Tsunade.

"Hey dealer-san," Naruto called out to the young woman with a beautiful figure and long brown hair who was shuffling her cards expertly. She looked up from her shuffling to stare at the young teen confused.

"What are you doing here kid? Only adults are allowed to play here," Naruto tapped his headband with his left hand while his other put the water balloon into his bag.

"I'm a ninja nee-san. I've been an adult since I was twelve."

"Uh huh, I still don't feel comfortable having you here with the others," the woman said motioning to three other people there. It was an older man with round glasses and a young couple hanging off each over as if they were newlyweds.

"Hey I'm just here to ask a few questions." The dealer still looked apprehensive. Naruto sighed and tried a different route. "Maybe there is something I can do so you can help me?" The woman looked at Naruto and was about to answer when something cut her off.

"Ow! God _dammit_!" the dealer sighed as a small explosion came from the side and looked over to where the slot machines were.

"Not again… fine here's the deal. You figure out how to deal with _that_," she pointed to the side, "and I'll help you." Naruto raised his eyebrow before shrugging. The boy walked over to the slot machines and followed the sound of mutterings and cursing. He found the source rolling on the ground holding his face next to a smoking pile of metal and an odd looking helmet.

'_Wait that isn't a helmet. That's?_'

"Oi you okay?" the man uncovered his face and faced Naruto. The boy looked down into the face of a young man in his early to mid-twenties. He was dressed in what would be sharp looking black suit that was crumpled and covered in oil. A dirty white shirt lay underneath. He looked like a normal mechanic, however, everything that was normal about the man stopped there. His unruly hair was half black and half white. What was even more interesting was that his eyes were also black and white but just opposite of his odd bi-colored hair. He was giving the young blonde a wary look before grinning hardily.

"Heya kid how's it going?" the strange looking man stated. Naruto blinked a few times before squatting down to help the man up. Naruto pulled the guy up gave the man a cloth that was lying on the floor.

"What are you doing mister?"

"Me? Why I'm creating the next great thing in security!" the man said with a glint in his eye. Naruto felt like gulping with that glint. "Or well I was going to, but the craftsmanship of these parts aren't meeting my specifications for my beautiful invention."

"Are you making... were you making a chibi-Gundam?" Naruto asked as he picked up the charred remains of what he now recognized as a Gundam head. The man looked surprised before smiling brightly.

"Why, I'm surprised that you would recognize this. Especially from what's left of it," the guy laughed. Naruto shrugged then put the scrap metal down.

"I'd have to recognize a lot of manga and anime references for my skills. Though not a lot of people would know what _this_ is."

The man huffed in annoyance. "The metalwork isn't high enough. I need real smiths for ideas."

"This is pretty advanced for our time. I'm surprised you have the knowledge to do all this." The man merely laughed.

"Boy you have no idea. I am a genius! I am a technological wonder!" Naruto gave the man a flat stare.

"Then what happened here?"

"… I didn't say I'm a metalworking wonder." Naruto shook his head and bent down to actually study the rubble that was the strange man's invention. It was quite amazing actually to see someone with an advance knowledge of technology and who had taken something from some of the popular media sources.

"Too bad Takuma and Emi aren't here," Naruto muttered absently before standing up.

"Who's that?" the man asked hearing Naruto's muttering. Naruto tilted his head in wonder before shrugging.

"They are two of my close friends. And they are also the greatest smiths I know."

"Really now? Hmm…" The man had a sudden glint in his eye once more and Naruto had to repress another gulp.

"Um…look mister I was wondering if you could maybe keep it down," Naruto said trying to ignore the strange man's new mutterings about faulty metal and poor materials, "so I can ask that lady over there a few questions," Naruto pointed to the brown haired woman.

"Ah Cherie? Yeah she doesn't like it when I work when there are a lot of people here," the man chuckled. He wiped his hand with a cloth and grabbed a small tool box behind him. "So what are you doing kid?"

"Ah I'm on a mission," Naruto said grinning before he became a slightly depressed. The man immediately picked up on this.

"You okay kid?"

"My mission isn't going too well."

"What kind of mission can a kid like you be on?" the man asked. Naruto poked his headband like he did with Cherie and the man leaned in to get a good look at it. "You're a ninja? Really?" Naruto nodded.

"Uh so yeah…I'm going to head back over there," Naruto stated slowly. The man nodded absently as he watched Naruto walked away.

"I sense possibilities," the man grinned

Naruto walked back to the card table every once in a while looking over his shoulder. The bi-color haired man was still staring at Naruto with a contemplative look on his face.

'_Weird._'

"Hey so I got him to quit whatever he was doing. You think you can answer my questions now?" Naruto asked Cherie. Cherie looked obviously relieved and nodded.

"Sure sweetie. What do you need to ask?"

"Sweet so has a woman by the name Tsunade come by here recently?"

"Sorry but we don't really ask the name of our customers."

"Hmmm well how bout a lady with _extremely_ bad luck?" The woman's face actually lit up after a moment of thinking.

"Ah yes actually someone like that did come by here not even three days ago. It was interesting since my manager is still furious that she skipped out on her tab here," the woman giggled. "It was quite the sight to see."

"What did she look like?" Naruto asked thinking about the description Jiraiya gave him before he went off to search. _'Blonde with pigtails and wears a green coat. Come on say she was blonde with pigtails.'_ Naruto thought earnestly.

"Well she was a blonde woman who had her hair tied on each end, in pigtails actually. She had another woman with her as a companion. That woman had short dark hair and was carrying a pig. She shouldn't be hard to miss, that one." Naruto whooped and shook the Cherie's hand.

"Thanks nee-chan! That means we're on her trail," the boy turned around and headed towards the exit. As he reached for the door handle for the casino Naruto felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey kid hold on a minute I wanna talk to you for a minute." It was that strange man once again that Naruto had just talked to. Naruto blinked a few times before nodding slowly and walked outside. Once on the street the blonde once more pulled the water balloon from his bag and had it resting in his right palm. "So kid you finish that mission?"

"Ah that's actually for my sensei and no. We have this special mission I guess. Though I'm not sure if its classified," Naruto replied as he focused on what was currently becoming the greatest annoyance in the world to him. The man watched silently as he and Naruto walked through the streets. Naruto could feel the water in the balloon spinning very fast. In fact the balloon was actually becoming flat! But the damn thing still wouldn't pop. Naruto looked at the balloon bitterly almost willing it to explode before the man beside him started to chuckle.

"It seems you're having another problem kid."

"Yeah it's this stupid technique I'm learning. By the way pretty amazing stuff you were trying to do back there."

The man smiled. "Trust me kid when I can get some of my big ideas out you will be amazed. I just need how you say… some help. Like they say 'Two head are better than one' ya know." The man replied. Naruto nodded before suddenly stopping. Two heads were better than…one… That's it!

Naruto grinned and quickly looked for another water spout near a less crowded area. After pulling another four water balloons from his bag Naruto filled another five and set all he had on the ground. The man watched curiously as Naruto counted the orbs on the ground.

"Alright and that makes ten. So if two heads are better than one then how about ten!" Naruto grinned before placing his hands in a cross seal. "Kage Bunshin no jutsu!" Behind Naruto nine clones popped out from clouds of smoke. Each blonde grabbed a water balloon and then grinned at one another. "Alright so we all know what to do?"

"POP THE FUCKING BALLOON!" the clones chorused. Naruto grinned as the other blondes set to work before turning to the man who had a surprised look on his face.

"Wow the fabled Kage Bunshin. I _never_ thought I'd get to witness it, and from a kid too!" the man said amazed. He chuckled lightly and before long the light chuckling became loud guffaws. Naruto slowly backed away from the man that was becoming increasingly crazy. He looked weird enough but with his mad cackling Naruto felt the need to run.

"Yeah—I'm goin to head out of here. Nice meeting ya," Naruto said before he turned to walk away. He was stopped as he felt a pull on his collar and he looked back warily. "Now what?"

"Kid I knew I was right when I went to follow you. I had a gut feeling about you and I always follow my gut feeling," the man smirked. "The name's Kira, Rokunai Kira, and today is your lucky day!" Kira said loudly before placing a small card in Naruto's hand. The boy read it slowly.

"_Rokunai Kira: MAD GENIUS!_..." Naruto felt his eyebrow twitch before sighing. His life was never simple was it?

* * *

Naruto was currently on top of the roof of one of the more decorated buildings with a water balloon resting in his hand. Kira was laying on the edge as the sun was starting to set. There was a loud pop followed by a _splash_ as the balloon in his hand popped suddenly. Naruto quietly pulled another from his bag and held the dark blue orb to the setting sun. The balloon started to bulge everywhere before popping again. He flicked his hand to let the water fly off before sitting next to Kira.

"Not that I'm not grateful for your advice in helping me and my clones figure out our training, but could you please explain why you want _me_ to help you out?" Naruto asked wearily. It had taken the better part of his day for him and his clones to figure out what the trick was to popping the ball, and what frustrated the blonde even further was that his new…friend…was the one who had finally helped him understand why the balloon wasn't popping. Turned out spinning his chakra in one way wasn't enough, basically he had to spin in many directions to make the water in the ball turbulent enough to pop the balloon.

"It's like this kid, I'm an inventor. I've spent my life figuring out the ways of the world through my brains. I've invented things that have never been seen by man in this time. My dream is to bring our world into the future," Kira said as he lounged on edge. "But here's the problem I've got nothing to start with. I'm just a man with a dream that people think is crazy."

'_Your looks may have something to do with it,'_ Naruto thought but stayed silent.

"But I can't create without proper materials. You say these people you know are the best smiths that you know. Can you prove it?" Naruto pulled his Hyper Gloves from his belt and handed them to Kira. Kira looked at the gloves in amazement. "This workmanship is amazing. Such a sleek design and this metal is by no means low grade."

"It can channel chakra too."

"Really! Amazing," Kira whispered as he turned the gloves over in his hands. "I can't use chakra, but I'll take your word for it." Kira handed the gloves back to the boy who clipped them on his belt before sighing.

"So you're really going to come with me? I don't know how Ero-sennin will take it but I don't see a problem."

"Kid I can see a bright future if we stick together," Kira grinned into the dark orange sky.

Naruto scratched his head in exasperation. '_This guy is crazy, but you gotta admit he sure knows his stuff._' Naruto thought as he hugged his knees. He had seen one of Kira's inventions in action. Those scuffed up shoes Kira was wearing actually allowed the guy to run up the wall and speed across rooftops like a ninja! It had something to do with gyroschools or whatever it was called. Whatever it was Naruto knew Kira wasn't using chakra because during his two weeks of personal training, sensing chakra was one of the skills he had picked up and Kira hadn't used a sliver of the energy when scaling the wall. The man wasn't lying about not being able to use chakra.

"What about your job here?"

"I don't really like working there. I have no real connections here so it's not like anyone will miss me," Kira said shrugging.

"Well let's break the news to my teacher. I wonder how he will take it?"

It turns out it was easier than Naruto expected. Once he met up with Jiraiya the boy proved he had completed the first step which caused Jiraiya to nearly have a heart attack. Though when Naruto explained about the clones, Jiraiya nearly smacked himself for not thinking of that idea. When Kira was introduced to Jiraiya the man literally bowed to the Sannin. When asked why from Naruto Kira merely looked at Naruto with a straight face and simply stated, 'Icha Icha.' Jiraiya immediately took a liking to the young man while Naruto sweat dropped over the idea that his new friend was a pervert.

After staying in the town for one night and picking up Kira's pack the three were once again on the road. It had been three days since the group left the town and in Naruto's hand was a rubber ball which he and about twenty other blondes were yelling obscenities at. The second step was power and apparently the piece of rubber in Naruto's hands didn't think he had enough power.

"Fuck you rubber ball!"

"I will blow you apart!"

"Your mom!"

Jiraiya sweat dropped at that last comment made by a clone and rubbed his temples. He felt proud that his unofficial apprentice was plowing through learning the Rasengan but had told the kid not to use too many clones or he would hurt himself. Naruto assured him that he knew what to do but hearing so many of the boy's voices was irking him.

"Naruto shut up!" Jiraiya yelled as Kira chuckled to the side. "What did I tell you last time?"

"To focus my power on one point," the original replied. "But it's still freaking hard! I mean all we've been able to do is get a hole in it!" Jiraiya sighed and motioned him over.

"Give me your hand." Naruto complied and Jiraiya drew a swirl on the boy's right palm. "Let this be your focus spot. If you can do that it will be easier." Naruto looked at the mark on his hand before nodding with a new conviction. He dispelled his clones two at a time and felt the influx of info in his mind. After taking a few deep breathes from the rush of memories and time Naruto held his hand up and started to focus. Jiraiya sighed happily at the silence and continued on while Kira followed while looking behind his shoulder to see the blonde boy with his back to them.

"So you think your mark will help him?" Kira asked.

"Who knows, all I know is that I'm happy for the peace and qui-." Jiraiya was cut off as a loud _BOOM_ was heard and a blonde blur flew past them. Jiraiya looked at the boy sprawled on the ground in front of them who was twitching uncomfortably. "Well step 2 complete. But looks like he knocked himself out."

"The kid gonna be okay?"

"Oh don't worry he is fine just a bit hard headed."

"That's what I'm slightly worried about," Kira said shaking his head. Jiraiya lugged the boy onto his back who gave a moan of pain and they were on their way once more.

* * *

Naruto was lying on his bed with a balloon filled with air in his hand. Around him was about five or six clones with balloons in their hands. There was an occasional pop as a clone would pop their balloon with a curse before blowing up another to try again. Yesterday he had completed the second step and this morning he could now do it without blowing his feet from under him. Now he was on step 3 and this one was the hardest. He needed to max out the rotation and power _and_ keep it all contained in a shell. If he could make that shell perfect then the balloon wouldn't pop. Suffice to say his room was littered with busted latex rubber.

Kira had left the two earlier to go to one of the stores to stock up on items. Jiraiya on the other hand had been distracted by a pretty girl and made Naruto take their things into the room. '_Bastard,_' Naruto thought with a growl. The balloon popped in the boy's hand and Naruto huffed in annoyance. What an annoying technique. A knock on the door made Naruto stop reaching for another balloon and look up.

"Heh I bet Ero-Sennin musta struck out, huh Ichi?" Naruto grinned. The clone laughed lightly and dropped from the ceiling he was stuck to. The other clones all shared a laugh before going back to their tasks. "So did she slap you for being a perv Ero-Sennin?" What greeted Naruto wasn't the swollen face of his teacher. Instead Naruto was staring into the red orbs of one the famed doujutsu.

"The _Sharingan_?" Naruto whispered. '_Suki? No it can't be. This is a male so this guy must be…'_

"Hello Naruto-kun. Why don't you come outside?" the mysterious man said. Naruto nodded numbly before looking behind his shoulder. His clones looked at one another before slowly heading to the window. They needed to find Jiraiya. Naruto walked out of the door and closed it quietly before studying the two people in front of him. Both men wore long black cloaks with red clouds adorning them. The one that had spoken looked like an older version of Suki when she still had that illusion that made her Sasuke. He was obviously older and looked like his face had permanent tear grooves. His partner however was a much more terrifying looking person. He looked like a human and shark hybrid. He had blue skin and his eyes were bulging out of his head. Naruto shuddered.

"So this is the Kyuubi brat? Doesn't look like much," the blue skinned man said with a viscous grin. "Maybe I should cut off his legs so he can't run eh Itachi?"

"No Kisame. If you cut him he may go in to shock and we can't have that," Itachi stated back calmly. Naruto gasped audibly and gulped. They knew about Kyuubi. What did they want with the Kyuubi no Kitsune? "Now Naruto-kun it would be in your interest to come with us."

"W-who are you guys?"

"That's not really any of your concern brat," Kisame sneered.

"Well I ain't going anywhere if you guys aren't going to tell me anything so if you would be so kind to, um how to say this, go away," Naruto said. Kisame chuckled darkly.

"Hmm I think this kid needs to be taught a lesson eh Itachi. Maybe I can knock him around a bit." Itachi narrowed his red orbs and opened his mouth to speak. However he was cut off by a scream from down the hall.

"ITACHI!" Everyone turned to the source of the voice and Naruto's eyebrows raised in surprise. There stood Suki in all her righteousness. Her own Sharingan was spinning with fury as she stared at her brother.

"Hey that person looks familiar is she related to you." Itachi said nothing. He was too surprised over the fact that her once little brother had reverted back to being a girl. Something must have happened.

"Sasuke?...no Suki," Itachi whispered. The Uchiha glanced at Naruto who was staring at his teammate. Was it the blonde's doing?

"Suki what are you doing here?" Naruto screamed out. These guys looked strong, amazingly strong, and Naruto wasn't sure that even with the two of them, him and Suki might not make it. Deciding to pull out an unfinished technique from his two week training session, Naruto trained his eyes on the two men in cloaks. "_Scan_!" Naruto whispered quickly. His technique involved him to basically saturate the air around him in chakra slowly as to not raise suspicion then send out a few quick pulses of chakra after. The pulses would react off an enemy's chakra signature and pulse along the chakra infused air till it got back to him. The stronger the enemy was then the stronger the recoil from the chakra pulse. It was still incomplete since the original Scan allowed a person to have a read out of more specific things and even techniques but for now this would have to do. Naruto waited for the chakra pulse to come back and not a second later he felt himself about to vomit. '_These guys are monsters!_' Naruto thought petrified. The recoil from the pulse was so powerful that he felt his whole body tremble. Suki and him were not ready for these guys.

"I've waited for this. I've hated you. I've detested you. I've lived to kill you," Suki spat. She held her left hand up and a Chidori started to form. It grew in power and chirping started to echo in the hall. "My whole life has led to this moment! And now I will avenge my family! You will die Itachi!" Suki screamed as she shot down the corridor dragging her hand behind her and created a large groove in the wall.

Itachi said nothing as he watched his little sister careen towards him with her fist covered in lightning chakra. As Suki screamed and was about to plunge her fist into her brother, Itachi deftly flicked her hand into the wall where the girl's technique caused a hole to form through the next five walls.

"Chidori? Interesting," Itachi murmured as Suki glared at him defiantly. With a quick twist Suki's wrist was snapped and she screamed out. Itachi merely threw her aside before turning to a frozen Naruto once more. "You will come with us now."

"No…" Suki groaned as she pushed herself up. "I'm not done yet. This is my chance. I will get my revenge today…" Itachi sighed before turning to his sister once more. A kunai slid from his sleeve. It seems he would have to pin her down. He walked over and picked up the injured girl before slamming her into a wall. Suki let out a cry of pain before she started to struggle once more.

"You are still weak dear sister. Do you not have enough hate? Did you not loathe me enough?" Itachi said quietly his Sharingan starting to form a different shape. "Hate me. Hate me now as I stab into you like I stabbed into our parents." Itachi's hand came down and Suki pushed against his arm futilely. Suki couldn't resist herself as she stared into the eyes of Itachi. The eyes that slowly turned into the Mangekyo Sharingan. "Tsukiyo-."

"Henge!"

_Klang!_

Two pairs of Sharingan eyes widened as a blonde and orange shape stood between them. Naruto stood in the middle of Suki and Itachi deflecting the blade in a way that made both pairs of eyes widen. Naruto's right hand had stopped the blade dead in its tracks, the kunai scraping against the now metal arm the boy wielded. Itachi raised an eyebrow in confusion and slight wonder as Suki stared at her teammate. Naruto grunted and pushed the kunai off his arm before lashing out. Itachi hopped away agilely and Suki dropped to the floor.

"Naruto?" Suki asked. Naruto grunted before he coughed violently. He could feel some blood coming from his mouth.

"I wasn't ready to use this but I panicked and could only think of this way to deflect that kunai from close up. My kunai work against his would have ended up with me getting stabbed so this was all I could think of," Naruto explained as he coughed again.

"What's wrong? Why are you bleeding?" Suki asked. Itachi stayed silent and watched.

"Hey what's up with that brat's arm? It wasn't metal a second ago right?" Kisame said. He didn't really care that Naruto went to save his teammate. The two were toast anyways. Itachi merely stayed silent and studied Naruto's right arm with his eyes.

Naruto groaned and got into a loose fighting stance. His whole body felt like it was being ripped apart. "This is going to be a pain," the boy groaned before clenching his fists and glaring at the two people in front of him.

"Naruto move!" Suki hissed out as she struggled to push herself up. "This is my fight and I don't need you to do this for me!" Naruto grunted and held his metal arm out in front of her.

"Remember what I told you in Nami?" Naruto whispered behind him. Suki blinked in confusion before she recalled his words.

_"Well if that's the case I could always help you."_ Naruto's words rang in Suki's head. _"Yeah cause, well, we are teammates and I guess we'll be on this team for a long time. Why not help each other out?"_

"You said you'd help me. If that is so then help me!" Suki yelled harshly as she finally pushed herself up. "He is right in front of me. All my anger, all my questions! This is my chance to finally achieve my ambition… Itachi!" Suki pointed at the man with her good arm. "Tell me why. Tell me why did you kill everyone. Why did you wipeout our clan?"

Itachi stared at the screaming girl impassively before looking once more to Naruto who was grimacing in discomfort. "Kisame apprehend young Uzumaki. I shall deal with my sister," Itachi stated calmly. Kisame grinned eerily.

"Finally some action." Naruto gulped and stood his ground as the shark man step[ed forward. Suddenly the blue skinned shinobi was in Naruto's guard and the boy's eyes widened in shock.

"Wha-!" Naruto didn't finish his outburst as he was elbowed in the stomach and choked on the bile that rose in his throat. The boy was suddenly kicked away before his body could react to the hit to his gut. Naruto crashed into a wall and groaned as his eyes flickered open and close.

"Naruto!" Suki yelled as she rushed towards him. Naruto pushed himself up with a low moan. Kisame was once again in the boy's face and smashed an open palm against his face and sent Naruto to the floor. Naruto felt his body bounce from the impact and he landed in a heap on the ground.

"Man kid I thought you had a little more fight in ya," Kisame said clearly disappointed. Naruto growled lowly through the haze before shooting back up and tried to slam his metal fist into Kisame's face. Kisame side stepped lazily and once Naruto landed he blurred from view. The boy appeared behind the shark man and was about throw his non-metal fist out for a Shotgun. Kisame grunted before hefting the large object on his back and slamming it into the Genin. Naruto cried out in pain and bounced across the ground. Naruto felt a sudden rushing sensation in his body and to his morbid shock his right arm turned back to normal in a puff of smoke and his fist lost all of its chakra. In fact Naruto didn't feel any chakra going through his body at the moment.

"Ha will you look at that, looks like once _Samehada_ took all your chakra your little trick goes bye-bye," Kisame grinned. Naruto looked from Kisame to his arm as he came to a startling realization.

'_If I have no chakra my transformations are cancelled…even the body changing ones! But, but how?.."_ Naruto thought as he slowly loss consciousness. His last vision was of Suki rushing towards him and a large toad blocking her from the Sharkskin sword that was heading towards her. '_Dammit Suki why did you come here? Why now?'_

* * *

**So I hope you all enjoyed the chapter. Before anyone screams at me if they noticed something about Kira I am telling you now that the character design for Kira is based off of Kira from the story, or stories, Naruto X and Naruto X: Rewrite written by the wonderfully talented authoress Blu Rose. Quite the story, I haven't read it in a long time but she really makes a great story. Anywho, read and review!**


	14. AN to all my Readers

Dear valued readers,

I am sorry this is not a chapter. This AN will hopefully answer all the questions that you have and may have.

To start, this is posted in all my other stories. This is NOT a new chapter again. This is a small explanation and something that I hope you all will read.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season. Before then was about when I last updated and brought out the new story, Bad Day. Unfortunately I did not have such a wonderful holiday. This past holiday season my Grandfather passed away. I was very close to him and he was a very kind man. He taught me many things and this past holidays he passed away from pancreatic cancer. It was a heavy hit for my whole family.

It has taken me a while to come to terms with him being gone, but I am finally able to start with continuing where I left off before I disappeared on you all. Again I am very sorry.

So some info. First of all, KTtH:Rebirth will be updated probably the earliest, then Mimic. After that my others will surely follow because I have become greatly inspired to write and give you all good reading experience.

Happy readings to you all.

Nanashi


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